Health Information Bill 2024: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-03
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Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (FG), Dún Laoghaire

These amendments relate to the power of the HSE under the Bill to request health information for important public interest purposes beyond care and treatment. On Second Stage, I spoke about how we are seeking to transform the culture of information sharing in the health service. Part 4 of the Bill sets out a number of specified public interest purposes, including service planning and performance management, in respect of which the HSE can request and receive health information from entities across the health sector. Senators will recall that we had a conversation about the sharing of information between private hospitals. They will also will recall their dissatisfaction with a private hospital not having shared information to enable the State to comply with its European regulatory obligations. I am happy to confirm that this private hospital has now enthusiastically agreed to share information, as appropriate, and is engaging with the Department of Health in that regard, which is very good news.
Nevertheless, we proceed with the Bill in the context of all the other cases on which we need to share information. That is the purpose of these amendments. What is proposed will support greater and more effective use of health information and is, therefore, a critical step in moving beyond our current, more fragmented approach to information sharing towards a more transparent and accessible view of the health system.
Amendment No. 1 relates to a change within the definition of health information. It will provide additional clarity on what information is in scope under that heading. The amendment clarifies that the definition of health information includes information relating to the provision and evaluation of health services. It will ensure there is even greater clarity as to the type of information the HSE can request under Part 4 of the Bill and for what purposes, namely, public interest purposes rather than to its statutory remit. Of course, this includes the need to secure the most beneficial, effective and efficient use of resources.
Amendment No. 2 is a consequential amendment arising from that amendment to the definition of health information.
Amendment No. 5 relates to the power of the HSE to use the electronic health record for specified public interest purposes. As I outlined on Second Stage, there are a number of critical building blocks on the path to full digitalisation of the health records. One is the patient app, which we have discussed. I am told there are over 250,000 downloads of that app. The second is the national shared care record. The HSE began rolling that out in the Waterford-Wexford region last year and that pilot will inform the phased, nationwide roll-out throughout 2026 and 2027.
I am pleased that last month, I secured Government approval for the HSE to begin the procurement phase for a national electronic health record. Electronic health records will ensure that the right information is available in the right place and at the right time, in line with the Sláintecare vision for integrated care. They will also provide patients with greater access to control over their personal health data. The information contained in the electronic health records will also provide – this is important – valuable, population-based data sets that will enhance the HSE’s ability to carry out core functions around service planning and management, while also driving important efficiencies. The amendment provides further clarity in that regard. For the avoidance of doubt, the HSE may use the electronic health record for a number of specified public interest purposes, including for the purposes of integrated service planning and the efficient and effective use of resources. This is a recognition of the value of electronic healthcare records not only for care and treatment but for greater and more effective, evidence-based decision-making in our healthcare system.
Amendment No. 7 seeks to clarify the process for the sharing of health information by relevant persons in response to a request from the HSE. That amendment removes potentially inefficient criteria for sharing, acknowledging that sections 22 and 24 already provide a number of processing and procedural safeguards with regard to the HSE’s use of the power to mandate the provision of health information, including proportionality, data minimisation, purpose limitation and transparency measures.
Amendment No. 8 further defines the purposes for which the HSE can request information from so-called relevant persons. They are in identical terms to amendment No. 5. Under the Bill, relevant persons include section 38 and 39 bodies and private providers with which the HSE has entered into an arrangement to provide health services. That is quite extensive and important. The amendment, along with previous amendments just discussed, recognises the huge value and potential of information when we have the full picture of where resources are and how they are being used for the benefit of both patients and the taxpayer. It moves beyond our current, more fragmented and siloed approach to health information management that, unfortunately, has frustrated the development of evidence-based policy and practice in Irish healthcare.
The amendments will clarify more precisely the duty of health service providers to comply with requests from the HSE and share health information as necessary, including for the purposes of integrated service planning and the efficient and effective use of resources. That relates most particularly, but not limited, to integrated financial management systems.
Senators will recall that I spoke of my frustration about the culture of not sharing and the obstacles to information that had been in place for some time. I am pleased that I can report not just progress in respect of the private service provider, but also some important updates with regard to the implementation of the integrated financial management system, IFMS, which has been the subject of great interest both in this House and at the public accounts committee, which sits elsewhere on this campus. The implementation of the integrated financial management system at the first two voluntary section 38 hospitals, St. James’s Hospital and Tallaght University Hospital, is progressing as planned, with strong local engagement. I thank them for that. The resourcing and detailed project plans are in place. That is good news and progress. I expect all of the other section 38 hospitals to engage in the same way when it is their turn.
An interim arrangement is also operating during 2026 whereby voluntary hospitals submit monthly financial data for upload to IFMS as the single national system for monthly financial reporting, pending the full implementation across all of the section 38 hospitals.
I am also pleased to report that there has been renewed engagement in respect of the requirements under the EU statistical regulation, which I referenced on Second Stage. I might come back to that at a later stage.
I highlight the importance of population-based health data. It was discussed among European health ministers at the informal European Council meeting in Cyprus last week. We discussed the need for not just the patient care value of population-based health assessment, but how Europe might position itself more competitively by enabling access to healthcare data that might better inform life sciences and pharmaceuticals. I refer to driving both better patient care and the broader economy that Europe and Ireland are so well integrated with.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-03/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-03