High Court president writes to Holohan over Covid-19 vaccine for wards of court

The president of the High Court has written to the Chief Medical Officer concerning the administration of the Covid-19 vaccine to wards of court.

Ms Justice Mary Irvine manages a list of more than 2,000 wards of court, including a large number of elderly and vulnerable people. A substantial number of wards are in nursing homes or other residential care facilities.

She said on Friday she had written the previous day to the CMO, Dr Tony Holohan, concerning the vaccine issue and hoped for a response in the coming days.

The judge said she is concerned that wards will get the vaccine, on the direction of their clinicians, without undue delay. She hoped it would not be necessary to have formal applications brought in every case for an order permitting the vaccine to be administered, she added.

Ms Justice Irvine made the remarks when dealing with a number of cases in the wards list. In one case, concerning a man with schizophrenia and other conditions, she was told it appeared that existing orders permitting clinicians to administer such medications as they consider necessary in the man’s best interests would include the vaccine and that no specific order concerning the vaccine would be required.