“Once we receive that advice, we will immediately put that into action, whether before schools return or post-schools return."
HSE CEO Paul Reid has said that Ireland will start vaccinating children as soon as the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) gives the go ahead.
NIAC has been considering whether or not to offer the Covid-19 vaccine to children for the past number of weeks, meanwhile, HSE Chief Paul Reid has said that the health service is considering all scenarios and options at present.
He told Newstalk on Sunday that the HSE will be ready to impliment the advice given by NIAC once they give their reccomendations.
“First of all, we are waiting for recommendations from NIAC in terms of recommendations for 12 to 15-year-olds and how and when they should be administered," he said.
“Once we receive that advice, we will immediately put that into action – whether that is before schools return or post-schools return – we are looking at all options and from a HSE perspective, we will execute that once the advice comes.”
He added that he would like to see the "really good model" of the vaccination rollout continue to move down through the various age groups who have yet to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.
“We are looking at our whole vaccination programme because, even beyond the Covid vaccines, there is a whole range of vaccines we want to administer during summer and post-summer as well in terms of younger people,” he said.
“So, we are looking at all options for the vaccination of younger people - including vaccination centres, pharmacies, schools programmes and GPs.
“We have a really good model running now and we are looking at all options to continue that down through the ages."
