I thank Senator Casey for raising this Commencement matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Health. I will clarify how the data presented by NPHET and communicated by Government relate directly to indoor dining and specifically in each of the five scenarios presented in table 1. I welcome the opportunity to address the House and will begin by highlighting the significant and sustained progress that has been made in suppressing the virus over recent months due in no small part to the significant effo…

I again thank the Senator. He is quite right. We all agree that we must have an honest conversation about the matter. It is not just one group or one sector which has responsibility. As a society, we have a responsibility for our actions. The public health guidelines have not changed since the very beginning, including a wearing mask, keeping one's distance and washing one's hands. The Government is committed to working with stakeholders across the affected sectors in the coming weeks. We must continue to protect t…

I thank Senator Gavan for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Health. The Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 was signed into law on 20 December 2018 and commenced on 1 January 2019. Section 7 states: "The Minister shall, not later than 3 years after the commencement of this section, carry out a review of the operation of this Act." This review clause, introduced by the Government on Committee Stage in the Dáil, was included in the Act in order to facilitate mon…

Regrettably, I cannot answer as to the specifics. I can only answer in the context of what is in the script provided by the Minister for Health. The Minister has asked me to assure the Senators that implementing the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 and ensuring access to services under the Act remains a priority for the Department of Health. All the indications are these services are both operating and available. They are being delivered throughout the country in hospitals and community sett…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 54 and 56 together. I recently announced my intention to establish a working group to develop an autism innovation strategy. I made the announcement at the AsIAm "What Autism Acceptance Means to Me" online event, celebrating World Autism Day. My intention is to launch the strategy in January 2022. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth currently co-ordinates the national disability inclusion strategy and the comprehensive employment strategy for peop…

In response to the Deputy's additional questions, as she is aware, the progressing disability services, PDS, for children and young people model is being rolled out. The problem the Deputy described in respect of people falling off a cliff when they reach certain ages as they go through the process has now been stalled. No longer will a child age out of services, particularly in the transition from the early years to the school age teams. Second, we are carrying out a comprehensive and ongoing review of waiting lis…

The autism innovation strategy will be cross-departmental in nature, as autism is not solely an issue to be addressed by health supports, as I stated. In order to ensure that we find the best possible independent individuals and organisations to participate in the working group, I will launch a public expression of interest process over the summer. Key criteria for the working group members will include knowledge, lived experience and expertise in autism, particularly in the areas of education, employment, health a…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. The script I am going to read is the one he has provided. Government advice to avoid non-essential travel, including from Great Britain, will remain in place until 18 July. The common travel area allows Irish and British citizens to move freely between Ireland and the UK. Throughout the course of the pandemic, however, the Government has targeted public health interventions for travel. Evidence on the e…

I thank the Deputy. I will take back to the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, exactly what she has relayed here on the floor of the Dáil. The Minister and his team are being proactive. It was only last Friday that they took the twin-track approach to the vaccination for those aged 18 to 34 when we are still coming down through the cohorts. That is in order to keep pace with the Delta variant and to try to get as much of the population vaccinated as quickly as possible. It was very good to hear that we will have 50% of the…

Not at all. Like the other Deputies, I thank you for selecting this matter. I thank Deputies Connolly, Farrell and Ó Cuív for raising the issue of ambulance services in Connemara. I am advised that the National Ambulance Service has been engaging with local representatives on an ongoing basis regarding the provision of emergency ambulance resources for Connemara. The most recent engagement involved the chief ambulance officer for the NAS west division, meeting virtually with the Connemara Ambulance Crisis group and…

I thank the Deputies for raising this. We are fortunate that it is a Minister of State from Galway who is taking this question as I have a complete understanding of Connemara, and I have an understanding that when I leave the Bearna road to go out west, I am as close to Dublin as I am to some parts of Connemara. As to what I will do for the Deputies, the answer I got this evening was from the trauma and pre-hospital emergency care policy unit. I will organise a meeting with that team within the Department of Health…

The Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people, Deputy Butler, sends her sincere apologies for not being here to address this very important issue herself. She is before the Select Committee on Health this morning, to bring forward legislation, and so it could not be avoided. From the outset, I reassure the Deputy that the current and future care needs of the residents of the Owenacurra Centre have been paramount in all decisions and actions taken by the HSE. Owenacurra is a continuing…

I thank Deputy Buckley again. I will relay everything he has brought up to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. I am aware they had a conversation earlier in the week. Based on the original response the Minister of State gave me this morning, the priority concerned the need for infection control and management going into the winter period. I hear what the Deputy is saying about day services and respite care and also about not having an idle building or, more important, a vacant site with nothing planned for it. I …

I welcome the opportunity to speak about the impact that Covid-19 has had on people with disabilities. It is great to see Government time dedicated to the discussion of disability, which indicates the Government's commitment to resolving the different issues facing people with disabilities throughout the country. If I could take a second of the Acting Chairperson's time, from a Business Committee point of view, perhaps in future we might make disability a little more front and centre during Government time as well.…

I apologise on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, who cannot be here. This response has been drafted by departmental officials and perhaps we can get further into the more human side of what the Senator has raised afterwards. In arranging the moves, the international protection accommodation service, or IPAS, of the Department has sought to take account of families' individual needs. For example, families with children sitting State exams will not be moved until after the exams have been completed. I …

I thank the Senator for again articulating the lack of communication between IPAS and the residents, including a lack of response to his emails. I will take all of this to the Minister, as I am deputising for him today. I will ask the Minister to engage directly with the Senator and have the conversation about what systems are being put in place for that direct communication. I have also heard about the six families with young people heading to do their junior certificate and they have made bonds of friendship in t…

I am pleased to be able to update the House on the vaccine roll-out programme as it relates to people with disabilities. The national vaccine programme is unprecedented in its scale and will grow to become the largest immunisation programme in the history of the State. It is important to me and to people with disabilities and their families that the appropriate priorities are made in the national roll out, which I have spoken out about a number of times. It is also important for me to acknowledge how hard it has be…

I thank Deputy Bruton for raising this issue, on which I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly. It is recognised that the waiting times for hospital appointments, procedures and services have been impacted in the past year by Covid-19. On 23 March last, the HSE published A Safe Return to Health Services plan. The plan outlined a three-phase approach for the proposed restoration of services across community services, acute hospital operations, cancer services and screening services. It …

I totally concur with the Deputy. We have a plan and the money. Now we need business management and skill sets. We need to hold the service to account and it needs to be monitored on a monthly basis. My assessment of needs is a clear demonstration of how I secured funding to clear a backlog. This was done monthly by the managers of the various disciplines in community healthcare organisations, CHOs, around country and we have driven down the backlog by 78% in eight months. That is exactly what the Deputy is talking…

I will take those questions if I may. I thank Deputy Canney for raising these matters. I will take his last question first. He is quite right in what he has said about primary medical certificates. There was very little movement on them up to last December and into January. I met the primary medical certificate team myself two months ago. In the past two months, 471 assessments have taken place. The Deputy is correct in saying there have not been face-to-face assessments. In my own CHO area in Galway, more than 300…