Compulsory vaccination could be supported by Constitution

If the Oireachtas were to make Covid-19 vaccine mandatory, some legal experts believe constitutional law could support rather than defeat such a move

The capacity of a vaccine to end the Covid-19 pandemic depends on both the effectiveness of the vaccine and the number of people taking it

The successful development of multiple Covid-19 vaccines has brought the question of mandatory vaccination to the fore, as governments and businesses around the world consider how to effectively bring an end to the pandemic.

The issue of mandatory vaccination is not new. Questions over its constitutionality have previously arisen in Ireland in the context of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The uptake of the MMR vaccine has been declining in recent years, but ...