asked the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures if he is aware that a leaflet has been distributed to the effect that children availing of the Government scheme for evacuation will have to produce a certificate showing that they have been immunised against diphtheria; that there are no indications on the leaflet as to the authority which issued it; if he will state whether this leaflet comes from any official source, and whether, in view of the fact that the British public health authorities have not stipulated any such conditions for the children of evacuees and that the Canadian Government has not applied compulsory inoculation measures to children from England, he will assure the Dáil that compulsory inoculation will not be introduced in this country and, if no such assurance can be given, if he will indicate how far it is intended to press for a compulsory scheme and the special conditions necessitating such measures here.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Immunisation of Evacuated Children.
asked the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures whether it is intended that a child who has registered for evacuation and whose parents do not need to avail of State assistance in respect of it will be denied the necessary facilities for transport in a crisis if the parents object to the child being immunised against diphtheria; if so, whether any guarantee will be given that compensation will be provided should the child suffer injury as a result of the inoculation.
I propose to take questions Nos. 5 and 6 together.
When the Government decided to arrange for the evacuation, in certain circumstances, of specified classes of the civilian population from Dublin City and Dun Laoghaire Borough, it assumed the obligation of ensuring, as far as practicable, that no undue danger to the public health would result from any such mass movement of the population, more particularly when it was obvious that it would be necessary, for the success of the scheme, to resort to compulsory billeting. In discharge of that obligation, and in consultation with the medical officers of the Department of Local Government and Public Health, it was accordingly decided to make inoculation against diphtheria a condition of evacuation for those children for whose removal from the evacuation area the Government is prepared to assume responsibility. The medical precautions to be taken by persons making their own evacuation arrangements would be entirely a matter for such persons, subject to compliance with the provisions of the Public Health Acts and regulations made thereunder in regard to preventing the spread of infectious disease and provided that such persons did not propose to seek accommodation for their children in the reception area earmarked for those who are availing of the Government scheme.
The evacuation scheme is voluntary as regards intending evacuees, and the question of compulsory inoculation against diphtheria does not, therefore, arise in connection with it.
The name of my Department was inadvertently omitted from the leaflet referred to by the Deputy which was designed to publicise the facilities for free immunisation against diphtheria which had been arranged by the medical officers of the Corporations of Dublin City and Dun Laoghaire Borough in consultation with the Department of Local Government and Public Health.
Can the Parliamentary Secretary assure the House that, if the need for compulsory inoculation against diphtheria becomes more obvious than at present, sufficient supplies of diphtheria anti-toxin will be available to carry out inoculation on a nation-wide scale?
I can assure the Deputy that the necessary serums are available.