Yes. We are having the third meeting today. I will meet the hip dysplasia advocacy group on Tuesday, 14 October in Leinster House. I will also make clear to all parents who may not wish to be part of an advocacy group, or be connected to that, I am here to hear from them at any stage as well. It is also important to update the House that a meeting was held with the DDH advocacy group and the HSE on 24 September regarding mental health supports. It has been an enormously traumatic experience for many parents, as wel…

I thank the Deputy. While we have already invested in the University Hospital Galway campuses, there are significant proposals, as the Deputy is aware, for further investments there. The integrated development control plan, DCP, has been informed by population health needs and clinical demand. That has been developed and now provides a clear masterplan for the sequencing and delivery of new facilities. My Department has received a copy of the DCP and a programme strategic assessment report, SAR, which are currently…

It is a master plan that is developed sequentially. The Deputy can see the complexity of the work that is going on there with the diversion of underground services. It is incredibly complex work. Deputy Connolly knows the site a great deal better than I do, of course, and it is an old site that requires considerable development work. The last thing I will do is place a timeline on it. I just want to see things progressing and I hope that by the time the Deputy asks me this question on the next occasion, unless of c…

That seems perfectly reasonable and that is what I would do too. As the Deputy has saved me the background, I will save her reading out all of the trolley figures. I will highlight that unless Galway hospital, and the west and north west generally, start to routinely roster consultants on the public-only consultant contract at the weekends, they will continue to have the trolley difficulties they have had. It is very important. A total of 73% of University Hospital Galway's consultants have taken up the public-only…

I agree with the Deputy. While in 2024, nearly 1.4 million people accessed therapy services across disciplines including physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, dietetics, psychology, podiatry and all of that, in many cases waiting times are wholly unacceptable. To tackle this, the Department of Health is working closely with the HSE on a targeted, programmatic approach to managing therapy waiting lists in primary care, in particular. As well as looking at the longer term changes that are …

I thank the Deputy. He might allow me to reflect on that and discuss it with my officials further. What we are trying to do to build capacity in primary care therapy services is this three-part national programme, which I will lay out for the Deputy. Workstream 1 is an analysis of regional productivity to optimise current therapy care to maximise capacity within existing resources. Frankly, there is variation between regions and we need to understand specifically what that variation is and have a national response …

I thank both Deputies. There are an additional 320 new training places via the CAO in the different colleges. That is a significant expansion. I will speak to my good colleague the Minister for further and higher education, Deputy Lawless. My responsibility is, of course, in respect of the clinical training places that must go alongside the academic piece. We moved from a sort of apprenticeship model of nursing to an academic degree model to try to lift standards and expertise as far as possible, and enable the sor…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 87, 97 and 101 together. I thank the Deputy. Endometriosis has been under-considered by all of us, including the Department of Health and the HSE, but a significant body of work has happened in recent months. I am pleased to say that the national framework for endometriosis is now ready for publication. I am conscious that the budget is next week and we are trying to find the appropriate moment to publish the framework. It has developed and changed considerably, with significant add…

I thank the Deputy. Our thoughts are with Aisling as she goes through her treatment programme. On endometriosis, I want to acknowledge the many different groups that have engaged with endometriosis sufferers and the importance of all of that advocacy work. It was a step change to invite women to come into the Department when many of them feel that the Irish health system has so badly let them down. It was difficult for many women to come in and do that but we had to bring that experience right into the heart of the…

I am happy to update the House on the recently reached community pharmacy agreement and to take an opportunity in this House to recognise the very significant role that pharmacists play in delivering a more accessible and integrated health service across the country. Shortly after becoming Minister for Health in January, I began engaging with the Irish Pharmacy Union, IPU. It was the first representative body I met, and we clearly set out an ambition together for the future of community pharmacy. When I spoke at th…

Except for Belfast.

I thank the Deputy, and indeed many Deputies who have raised this issue with me. The HIQA report was published by HIQA just this lunchtime. It is a comprehensive report, 1,200 pages, looking back into the demographic issues in the area. It gives three options. The first two are loaded in terms of giving acute beds in the hospital. The third option, C, is the longer term option of a model 3 hospital. HIQA itself prioritises options A and B as meeting the needs of the people in the most immediate term and says that o…

The Deputy will be aware that I updated the House in May that HIQA had looked for an extension of that timeline, and intended to finalise the report in September. I can confirm to the Deputy that I have not received it from HIQA yet. It is the intention of the Government to examine the recommendations of HIQA and take them extremely seriously. I have not seen it and have not received the report yet.

I thank the Deputy. Yes, he wrote to me on this issue and we wrote back. A number of months ago, the Deputy sought confirmation that this was going to revert to a community nursing unit. Obviously, we are discussing that that is now happening. There are a number of administrative arrangements that need to take place. Let me not comment on Bartra Healthcare and the transfer of undertakings, but what I can say is that there is active recruitment across the HSE in all cases to try to bring more people in. I responded …

I am grateful to the Deputy for raising this matter. I will discuss it with the chief medical officer. Perhaps, the Deputy will share with me some of the correspondence that he referenced. We are very keen to ban all the inhalation products that we know are bad for people. We are trying to get ahead of that, never mind catching up with it. I would very much welcome a conversation with the Deputy and we will see what we can do to progress that.

How? Let us discuss Mayo University Hospital. The first thing is in relation to staffing. Mayo hospital has had a 30% increase over the past five years. When I saw some of these figures I did an analysis of a sample of nine model 3 hospitals. Mayo hospital has the second highest rate of staffing of those model 3 hospitals. The difficulty with Mayo hospital is not the level of staffing. I have also included a maternity leave analysis and a sick leave analysis. Mayo hospital is not understaffed. However, Mayo hospita…

Before I begin speaking on the national human rights strategy for disabled people, I want to take an opportunity to reflect on the far-too-short life of Harvey Morrison Sherratt and to extend my sincere sympathies in the Dáil to his family, Gillian, Stephen, Lyla and Remy, and his extended family. The pain felt by those around Harvey can never be eased. What we can do now and are determined to do is to drive change, but I do want to acknowledge that. In the weeks since Harvey's passing, I have asked the HSE CEO, Be…

It makes no sense.

We are very keen for them to work here. There are three aspects to that. The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, NMBI, has done good work on improving its registration times and I am confident about that side of things. CORU, for the health and social care professionals more generally, has made very significant progress, although the Taoiseach and I are discussing how we can bring that further in respect of physiotherapists and a range of professions in that space. That is moving on. The aspect where I have con…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am pleased to introduce the Health (Amendment) Bill 2025, by means of which it is intended to enhance the oversight and accountability of the Health Service Executive to both the Minister for Health and the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality. The Bill addresses a number of goals arising from the Sláintecare implementation plan, which highlighted the need to shift away from the previous directorate structure of the HSE towards an independent board over…