The High Court has been told that up to 100 children in the country are not receiving appropriate treatment for a sleep disorder they developed after receiving the swine flu vaccine more than six years ago.
The claim was made by lawyers representing around 60 people who allege they developed narcolepsy after receiving the Pandemrix vaccine as children or teenagers during the 2009 and 2010 swine flu pandemic.
They are suing the HSE and the vaccine manufacturer GSK who deny the claims.
Preliminary proceedings dealing with discovery in what is seen as a test case got under way at the High Court today.
Lawyers for a school girl who received the vaccine in 2009 told the court they needed more time to go through documents only recently provided by the defendants.
Senior Counsel Bruce Antionotti said it was still important that the discovery hearing goes ahead.
Mr Antionotti said there was some urgency to the case because 100 children in the country were suffering from narcolepsy in the context of receiving the swine flu vaccine.
He said these children were not getting the appropriate treatment and they were therefore anxious to get the case heard.
The case before the court involved a teenage girl who was one of 900,000 people who were given the vaccine during the vaccination programme in the winter of 2009 and 2010.
An expert group later found a 14-fold increase in the incidence of narcolepsy among children who were vaccinated, compared to those who were not.
At least 80 children who received the vaccine went on to develop the sleeping disorder which causes them to suffer spontaneous sleep attacks and in some cases a loss of muscle power.
It will be alleged the State and GSK were negligent in administering an untested vaccine and/or that the vaccine was a defective product.
The case is expected to be vigorously defended by the State and GSK.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott adjourned the hearing until tomorrow but said it did not look as if it were ready to go ahead.
The application asking the court to rule on which documents and records the defendants should disclose ahead of the main action, is likely to take several days, the court was told.
The case continues tomorrow.
