Healthcare Policy
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-19
============================================================

Maria Byrne (FG), Agricultural Panel

I thank the Minister of State for coming to discuss my Commencement matter. My question is about the EU safe hearts plan. Under the plan, every country in the EU is supposed to put in place its own cardiovascular plan. We have not had a proper plan since 2019. The last major plan was from 2010-19. While there is a lot of work being done in the area, I believe we should have a modern EU safe hearts programme. It is about blood pressure, stethoscopes, cholesterol, lipids, diabetes, risk, atrial defibrillation, pulse rhythm checks and proactive follow-up with people who are at high risk.
Ireland is facing the EU Presidency and we have a key role to play. We will hold the Presidency from July to December. I would like an update on what the Minister and Department of Health will do in this area. Even in recent times there have been huge risk factors to do with people with cardiovascular disease and there has been a higher uptick in the number people presenting with conditions. Ireland needs to lead the charge in this area of health. We need a safe hearts plan and a cardiovascular disease strategy. What are the timelines for publication and implementation nationwide? When does the Minister of State expect that to happen? It is about early detection and the relatively low-cost interventions that prevent high-risk crises. That is the key thing here. I look forward to the Minister of State's response.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-19