Vaccination U-turn - Callous and unrealistic

The announcement by Health Minister Mary Harney that the Health Service Executive is backing out of the planned pre-emptive vaccination programme for 12-year-old girls against the virus that causes cervical cancer has provoked a predictable storm.

If anybody thought that the announcement would go unnoticed in the midst of the coverage of the historical events in the United States, they were sorely mistaken.

The attempt to slip in such an announcement on a busy news day was particularly offensive, because it supposed that parents would not notice something of such importance to the health of their children. That was a crass insult to Irish parents.