Just under half of first year secondary school students have missed out on receiving the HPV vaccine.

New HSE figures show 53 per cent of pupils were vaccinated between September and December last year.

It's a significant drop on the 80 per cent of students who got the jab, which protects against a number of cancers, during the same months in 2019.

The HSE says school closures and the redeployment of staff to rolling out Covid jabs have interrupted school vaccination programmes.