Introducing mandatory vaccination for schoolchildren could undermine the programme and offer ammunition to vaccine sceptics, according to the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
It comes after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has backed Czech Republic rule banning unvaccinated children from pre-school.
The Czech rules were introduced before the coronavirus pandemic began and related to common vaccines for the likes of MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), polio and hepatitis.
The rules oblige parents to vaccinate their children unless they are unable to for health reasons.
The jabs can’t be forcibly administered and children can’t be excluded from school once they get to primary level.
In a ruling announced yesterday, The ECHR found that, while the policy interfered with the right to private family life, it was necessary to protect public health.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Dr Conor Casey, Lecturer in Constitutional Law University of Liverpool said any attempt to introduce similar rules in Ireland would be an “immensely tricky constitutional issue.”
He said the argument would hinge on exactly what the laws entailed and the reasons for introducing them, noting that the courts would have to consider both the Constitutional right to privacy in the home and the need to protect public health.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) Liam Herrick warned that any attempt to introduce mandatory vaccination could cause more harm than good.
“We have a strong Constitutional right to bodily integrity here and the right to refuse medical treatment,” he said.
“The decision that has been taken in Ireland traditionally, and it is still the position now, is that actually having vaccines on a voluntary basis but encouraging compliance leads to better results.”
He noted that there are a lot of countries that introduced mandatory vaccination but ended up with lower take-up levels than Ireland enjoys, “because the public here have confidence in the vaccine programme.”
“So, that is the decision that has been made here and if you look at the take-up rates in Ireland for things like MMR, they are very high,” he said.
“Now that, of course, could change but if you are talking about vaccine scepticism and reluctance, there is a feeling in our public health system that making it mandatory could actually undermine the message and could play to the vaccine sceptics.”
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