The past year has shown us the value of vaccination programmes. Given an unprecedented level of uptake in our flu vaccination programme in the winter of 2020-2021, can Government give a commitment that such a programme will continue to be free at source for the general population?

We had our best flu vaccine programme ever last year and, ironically, it was the year in which we had zero flu. That is the way these things go sometimes. It is probably the first time in a very long time, if not generations, that no case of influenza was recorded in the State during the winter period. We are not making the assumption that will be case this winter. There is a real risk, not just of new variants of Covid-19, but also the return of respiratory viruses such as flu and respiratory syncytial virus, RSV, which were suppressed last year.

It is the plan of Government to have a similar vaccine programme for influenza this winter on a similar scale to last year. One thing we must look at, though, is the nasal spray for children, which we did for the first time last winter. The uptake on that was actually pretty low. We will need to see if perhaps there is a better way to do that.