In Scotland, the RSV vaccination programme has resulted in a 62% reduction of people in the age group 75 to 79 being admitted to ICU. RSV is a respiratory virus that, despite being very common, can cause serious complications. We have a growing elderly population. The vaccination programme can help keep people out of hospital. Will the Government give serious consideration to introducing a similar programme to the one in Scotland, particularly for the group aged over 70? It is extremely important now. We will have 1 million people aged over 65 within the next four years. Now we need to start taking action to keep the numbers being admitted to hospital down.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. As he knows, the National Immunisation Office in the Department of Health takes a very much evidence-based approach to vaccination programmes. There has been some work on RSV relating to certain groups and it is free for babies, according to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. Any expansion of that should be examined by the National Immunisation Office, where appropriate. I know it is continuously ambitious in terms of broader vaccination. It is hugely important for managing overall public health and acute presentations that occur in our accident and emergency departments and in terms of using overall bed capacity in our hospital system. I will ask the Minister for Health, the National Immunisation Office and public health officials to respond to the Deputy's specific question relating to the learnings from Scotland.