A FIANNA Fáil TD has said he urged the Minister for Health Mary Harney not to perform a U-turn on the provision of a vaccine against the virus causing cervical cancer as it would lead to a needless loss of life.
Dr Jim McDaid said he told Ms Harney that he could not understand the logic involved in the decision to postpone the human papilloma virus vaccination plan, which would have cost the Government some €9.7million annually.
He claimed, that through the decision, Ms Harney would in 30-years time be "responsible for the loss of 50 to 100 lives" among the 90,000 girls aged between 12 and 14 who would have expected to receive the vaccine.
"Those girls may have survived had they been given this vaccine and that was my argument with her and I stand over that argument," Dr McDaid said on Newstalk's Lunchtimeprogramme yesterday. He said Ms Harney's response was: "Those are the things you would have to think out or talk about. Thats not an issue currently at the minute . . .We have no money, things are going to get an awful lot worse."
