The father of Laura Brennan has said negativity towards the HPV vaccine 'seems to have passed away' with his daughter.
Ms Brennan died of cervical cancer in 2019 at the age of 26.
In the years before her death, she became a high-profile advocate for the HPV vaccine - saying she wouldn't have developed cancer if she'd had the vaccine herself.
It comes as access to the vaccine is being expanded to include women up to the age of 25 and men up to the age of 22.
Larry Brennan told The Hard Shoulder the uptake has been climbing.
"When Laura got involved in this thing, unfortunately the uptake fell to 51% in Ireland," he said.
"She was lucky she was able to announce on the week before she passed that it got up to 71%.
"And I'm happy to say, feedback roughly at the moment, is around 84% uptake.
"Laura always said she'd love to get it up to 90%.
"In our humble opinion she won't get it over 90%, because you will always have 10% anti-vaxxers or anti-this or that.
"We're happy that we have reached 84% and the job is being done.
"There's a lot of people involved - the Minister, the department - we're all pulling together to try and get these figures up."
Europe looking to Ireland
Mr Brennan said negativity around the vaccine has faded.
"Laura worked to get over the whole idea of the negativity attached to HPV - that was going on in Laura's time - that seems to have passed away with Laura," he said.
"We received no negativity, and then our son Kevin instigated a campaign with regard to high-profile individuals wearing HPV jerseys.
"Our initial thing was to supplement what Laura was at [and] get the negativity out of [the] thinking of HPV".
Laura Brennan's parents Bernie and Larry launch the Vaccine Alliance in September 2019. Picture by: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ieMr Brennan said other countries are looking to Ireland due to the figures.
"It's a fair legacy because in Europe now they're looking at Ireland - they're encouraged by what's happening.
"My wife Bernie has to give a talk in Brussels in November because they want to know what's going on here in Ireland, how did it all come about?
"You've got to remember Laura put so much into it, she put the last couple of years of her life into it.
"There was a lot of things that went on and it all, to be truthful, got rid of the negativity."
Mr Brennan said he is hopeful HPV infection will be a thing of the past in the near future.
"We feel we're near the end because HPV will be a thing of the past definitely by 2050.
"People are looking at 2030 to try and have it forgotten about, and we'd love to see the uptake up to 90%.
"We feel we're getting there - even now this September, within the school curriculum, HPV is a module," he added.
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