Healthcare Policy Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-19 ============================================================ Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (FF), Carlow-Kilkenny Absolutely. The Government welcomes the development of the EU safe hearts plan, which was published in December 2025. The plan offers an opportunity for the EU to strengthen strategies for prevention of cardiovascular disease. The Senator is correct, in that it is about early detection and prevention, and other diseases have shared common risk factors. We have to be mindful of the latter, too. A flagship initiative, the safe hearts plan, will see the European Commission supporting countries to update or develop national cardiovascular plans in line with EU best practice by 2027, but I will definitely keep the Senator updated. This will support delivery of our programme for Government commitment to develop a national cardiovascular strategy that seeks to address and identify gaps in research, prevention, treatment and access to cardiovascular care. The safe hearts plan also includes a Council recommendation on the EU-wide standard approach to cardiovascular health checks. This initiative will support national approaches to the development of cardiovascular screening programmes in primary care such as our GP chronic disease management plan. As Minister of State, I will go back to the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. I will get the Senator more information on this. It is important that the Senator get dates, times and what the plan is going forward for our EU Presidency. It is important for our country to hold the EU Presidency, and health, as the Senator knows, is so important. I will come back to the Senator when I get more information. --- 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