Department fails to establish vaccine compensation unit

The Department of Health has failed to establish a separate unit to deal with a vaccine damage compensation scheme, three years after the Minister received a report on the current system for managing claims and four years after the Health Research Board (HRB) carried out an evidence review on such schemes in other jurisdictions, Deputy Denis Naughten has revealed.

The Roscommon/Galway Independent TD recently questioned the Minister for Health on plans to introduce a no-fault vaccination compensation scheme for severe adverse reactions to State-promoted vaccination programmes.

While Minister Donnelly confirmed Government had recently approved the establishment of an Interdepartmental Working Group to examine the rising cost of health-related claims, additional information provided to Denis Naughten outlined that given the importance of ensuring the vaccine damage compensation scheme is fit for purpose, and the potential risks to the Department and the Exchequer, it was recommended to the Secretary General and Minister that a separate unit be established within the Department of Health to undertake this work.

However it has now been confirmed to Deputy Naughten that the establishment and resourcing of this unit remains outstanding.

Commenting on this, Denis Naughten said: “While the perception is being given that the Minister and the Department are prepared to take vaccination damage compensation schemes out of the courts, a position held by Government for two decades, the reality is this is just lip service and clearly nothing is happening behind the scenes other than kicking the can down the road.

“How many children have to be dragged through the courts to get the expert support that they need as a result of being damaged by a State supported vaccination programme, before we will see any action?

“I’m aware of children damage by vaccines over 50 years ago who are still waiting for such a scheme, and that is just not good enough. This is despite the then Minister for Health, in the early 1980s, offering a once off payment of £10,000 to 16 families of children who were on the ‘balance of probabilities’ damaged by the State vaccination programme.”

In June 2018, the Government agreed to the establishment of an expert group to review the management of clinical negligence claims, chaired by Mr. Justice Charles Meenan.

Denis Naughten commented: “The group’s final report was submitted to both the Minister for Health and the Minister for Justice in January 2020 and published in December of that year. One of the report’s recommendations was that a vaccine compensation scheme be established as a matter of urgency. In addition, the Department of Health also requested that the Health Research Board (HRB) carry out a further review of the vaccine injury redress programmes in other jurisdictions and this was completed for the second time in March 2019.

“The Department is now saying that the issue of a vaccine damage compensation scheme did not progress because of the pandemic, yet it appears resources have not yet even been put in place to establish a separate unit for this purpose, despite the recommendation being made to both the Minister for Health and the Secretary General of the Department.”

Speaking in the Dáil, Denis Naughten said: “Commitments were given in the past two programmes for Government to introduce a no-fault vaccine compensation scheme. This was again promised by the former Taoiseach Deputy Micheal Martin in advance of the introduction of the Covid vaccination programme. My engagement on this issue with various Ministers for Health has been ongoing for the past 250 months - or more than two decades.

“I am deeply disappointed… scoping reports were done by the former Minister for Health, Deputy Micheál Martin, who gave a commitment when he was Minister to deliver on this. Every other Minister for Health since then has given this commitment. This scheme has been introduced in 25 countries.

“In 2020, the recommendation was that a vaccine injury scheme should be introduced as a matter of urgency. The Minister knows that there is a culture of fighting claims within the State Claims Agency and the health profession. There are parents who have been advocating on behalf of disabled children for more than 50 years and the doors have been slammed in their faces by the health profession telling them it is all in their heads. It is not good enough that decades later we are still talking about another report, another review and no action.”

Responding to Deputy Naughten, Minister Donnelly said: “My understanding is that it was intended in early 2020 to do exactly what the Deputy is calling for - to pull this group together, examine the international evidence and introduce something here for exactly the reasons outlined by him. Then Covid happened and the public health experts and doctors, the Chief Medical Officer, the deputy Chief Medical Officer, the bioethicists and all the people we would normally have involved in this were for obvious reasons pulled almost exclusively into the Covid response. Let us all hope that Covid is in the rear-view mirror and now is the time we can pull this group together. “