Luke O'Neill

It's free in Canada.

It's free in Australia.

It's free in Luxembourg.

There's several places have already said, look, this isn't about dementia, by the way, Pat.

This is to stop shingles, which is a very debilitating disease anyway.

And if you make it free...

A UK study showed when they made it free, uptake went from 30% to 70% by making it free because it's obvious.

And that's a wonderful thing to see, you know.

Now, obviously, when people think of dementia and reduction in the number of people suffering from dementia and looking at the care that is required of people with dementia, you'd say, well, if you could figure out the people who are likely to get it and who can be saved by this, obviously, there's a saving of money.

But people forget about the costs of shingles.

They do indeed.

100,000 people, they reckon, Pat, will get shingles in Ireland at a certain point in a given period.

Very nasty in some of them.

Months and months of symptoms.

Now, there's a couple of costs there.

They're often out of the workplace.

And the caring costs can be high as well.

So, in other words, that vaccine, you'll save money in the long run.

One study I saw, Pat, would be if it became free in Ireland.

it could save 8 million ultimately for the healthcare system.