Arrangements are now being finalised to offer the swine flu vaccine to the State's entire population, the Department of Health's chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said today.
This was, he said, "an enormous and logistically complex undertaking for the health system".
Speaking at a meeting of the Oireachtas health committee this afternoon, he urged health professionals to come forward for the vaccine once it is offered to them" and to accept the responsibility they have to protect themselves in the first instance so that they will continue to be able to work and to also ensure that the patients they care for are not put at risk of picking up an infection from an unvaccinated healthcare worker".
The vaccine is expected to be licenced in October and it will first be offered to healthcare workers and those in at risk groups.
Meanwhile, the committee heard that even people who already have had swine flu should get the vaccine when offered it in case the viral load they have had was insufficient to offer them full immunity from further infection.
Dr Kevin Kelleher, assistant national director of health protection with the Health Service Executive, said the total cost of the national H1N1 vaccination programme was still being worked out.
But the board of the HSE was told in June it would cost about €80 million alone to purchase the swine flu vaccines. Some 7.7 million doses have been ordered and individuals will require two doses a few weeks apart.
The committee was also told all information available to date indicates the vaccine is safe for pregnant women but it is unlikely to be given to babies under six months of age.
Meanwhile several members of the committee raised questions about the fact that the vaccine manufacturers had been given an indemnity by the State against any adverse reactions which might arise in those who were vaccinated. The Labour TD Kathleen Lynch said a similar indemnity had been given by the UK and US governments but in both those countries there were vaccine injury compensation schemes in place, unlike in the Republic.
Brian Mullen of the health promotion policy unit in the Department of Health said the indemnity arrangement was entered into in the context of planning for a H5N1 pandemic. But we now have a milder H1N1 pandemic and he said the Department of Health and the World Health Organisation were confident adverse reactions would be minimal.
Mr Mullen added that the Department was in the process of looking at a vaccine injury scheme for the Republic. Plans were being finalised and would be with the Minister for Health shortly, he said.