There is an "immune deficiency" in children now due to long lockdowns during the pandemic, according to Ciara Kelly.

The Newstalk Breakfast host said that the recent wave of Strep A, measles and influenza are leading to queues in children's hospitals.

She said that she has a "huge bee in [her] bonnet" about the "mismanagement of lockdowns and the knock-on effect they are now having on our population's youngest.

"Not only are we looking at a wave of Strep A across the country, but that is on top of the recent wave of RSV as well", she said.

"I don't remember this kind of perfect storm of childhood illnesses before."

'COVID didn't do it, we did'

Ciara said the business of the country's children's hospitals is "unusual".

"We're hearing that this is, you now, 'post-pandemic' thing", she said.

"The reality of it is this: There is an immune deficiency in our children."

"There's an immunity debt in our children."

"We tinkered with our children's immunity."

It is not the COVID-19 virus that caused this, according to Ciara, it was Ireland's response to it.

"We're going, 'oh it's post-pandemic'. It's not post-pandemic."

"COVID didn't do this to us. How we managed COVID did this to us."

"We tinkered with our children's immunity by making them stay at home, particularly in Ireland", she said.

'We need to remember this'

Ciara believes that children are "paying the price" for Ireland's response to the pandemic.

"We don't know how long it will take them to catch back up on this, but we did this to them", she said.

"We didn't have to manage the pandemic exactly as we did."

"There were those of us who sounded warning cries about the level of repeated lockdowns we engaged in and we were vilified for it."

"When we're next faced with these kind of decisions, we need to remember the knock-on effects in delayed cancer diagnoses, but also in children who don't have the immune system to fight illnesses that they previously with reasonably good affect."

Strep A

Parents are being urged to be on the lookout for signs of a serious Strep A infection.

The HSE is still working to confirm whether the death of a young child in Dublin was linked to the bacterial infection.

Strep A is usually mild and easily treated with antibiotics – but a form of the infection known as iGAS (invasive Group A Strep) is on the rise this winter.

The infection is particularly dangerous for children under the age of 10.

Over 55 iGAS cases have been confirmed in Ireland this year and two older people have died.

There have been 14 cases confirmed among young children – compared to the 22 cases reported in 2019.

Eight children are known to have died from the infection in Britain this winter, with the recent death of a five-year-old girl in the North also linked to it.