I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "recognises that: — Children's Health Ireland (CHI) was made aware through the protected disclosure process of a concern relating to the threshold criteria being used for surgical intervention in relation to development dysplasia of the hip (DDH) September 2023; — the concern related to different indications for DDH surgery between CHI Temple Street, the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh (NOHC) and CHI Crumlin, with a…

I thank Deputy Cullinane. I am very happy to look at any case. Deputy Cullinane appreciates I have not formally received the report yet but I am absolutely open to any case being brought to me. I would greatly appreciate if Deputies throughout the House might do so in the earliest course. Separately on the board of CHI, there is a statutory structure around it. I note the chairperson stepped down yesterday. I need to get the other two reports and I need to consider governance in the round. As the Taoiseach said ear…

As the House is aware, the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act was signed into law in July 2024. Significant amending work is necessary for that and formal drafting of that Bill, which is largely concerned with the outstanding issues of parentage and citizenship, as well as procedures undertaken abroad, is under way and is a priority area. I am hoping this will be published in June.

I would appreciate it if the Deputy would give me the details of that. We are constantly recruiting in the health service. We have another 6,250 people to recruit just this year and that is after retirements. It is very much against the grain to hear this in Dáil Éireann, considering how much we have invested and how much we continue to invest. Could the Deputy give me the details? I will be happy to look into it. I note UHL's continued good progress on its trolley numbers. Getting to amber this weekend was a new s…

The commitment in the budget last year was to provide for HRT medication to be free. That has been available to be implemented since January. The Deputy is correct to say that there had not been enough dialogue with pharmacists in the context of the implementation of the scheme. I met the Irish Pharmacy Union twice - in early February and again last week - in order to try to resolve the issues relating to the scheme and make sure that the medication is free. Women are paying in or around €45 to €50 for HRT at the m…

I updated the House last week to the effect that I had received the interim report. It has since been published. The report outlines the process that HIQA is going through, including in the context of the submissions that have been made and that are being collated. In the report, HIQA indicates that it will publish the final report in May. We will need to see what that is going to say.

The Deputy is correct that the programme for Government contains a commitment in respect of the establishment of six surgical hubs. We are examining a business case for an additional hub in the north west. I am going through the detail of that. It is extremely important to recognise how additive a surgical hub can be and the support it can provide to a local acute hospital to try to remove some scheduled care in order that people have a completely separate and predictable system. A hub also makes matters easier for…

As the Deputy is aware, there needs to be an amendment to that legislation. There is considerable engagement between the Department of children, the Department of Justice and my Department on it and there has been intensive work. It is on the priority list for the spring legislative programme. I expect that amending legislation to be published in June. My own target is that it will be enacted by December. There is another option to commence a piece, but it is not the complete legislation and we have to set up the r…

Really?

That word.

No, you used the word "lies".

I have two points to add to the comments made by my Government colleagues. The first is that we are temporary custodians of the processes and standards that were built before our time in the House. The Ceann Comhairle is a constitutional officeholder who was elected by the Dáil. It is disproportionate to have a motion of confidence if the only issue is the way in which she took a vote. She commenced a process a number of weeks ago whereby she invited submissions on speaking rights. Before the timeline had expired f…

There are many different issues and I want to try to respond to everybody individually. If I do not, I will do so when I come back in on a different section because I respect and appreciate all the important points people have raised. I do not simply want to read out speaking notes or anything like that. I want to try to address the points properly. It was very important to me to be here to listen to what the Senators had to say and to respond to this legislation. I know they will appreciate that I am doing everyth…

I want to clarify Senator Ryan's position. From my reading of the amendment, she does not specify the time as ten weeks or 12 weeks but she alludes to the Sláintecare target times. Is that correct?

The external quality review conducted by the Boston Children's Hospital contained 27 recommendations, 23 of which have been implemented. One recommendation has been partially completed but cannot be fully completed until the move to the new national children's hospital - we need to talk about the name. A further recommendation cannot be commenced until the transition to the hospital is complete. One recommendation is currently overdue. It is due for completion in the first quarter of 2025, which is nearing its end.…

Out of respect to the people who have been working on this, I wish to inform Senators that in 2024 a total of 513 spinal procedures were completed, a 10% increase on the 464 undertaken in 2023, and a 25% increase on 2019. As of 26 February this year, 87 procedures had been completed. Saturday outpatient clinics are taking place where new spinal outpatient referrals are being seen in addition to existing clinics. A total of 526 patients were seen between April 2024 and February 2025. Of those, 25 were added to the s…

I thank Senator Boyhan.

I just want to observe with regard to UHL that over the bank holiday weekend in February, 140 people were waiting on trolleys but this weekend there were 79. That is a 56% reduction and it should be like that all the time. There is huge capacity going into Limerick in terms of the 96-bed block and a second one. There will be 582 new beds delivered. An interim report by HIQA was brought to me and I will probably publish it today. I can tell the House now that it is basically a summary of the work that has been done …

The national review of adult specialist cardiac services is finalised. The review provides a detailed, evidence-driven analysis of cardiac services across the country. A wide range of stakeholders - clinical, patient and public - were consulted as part of the review. The review provides recommendations around cardiac health policy, specifically: patient-centred care integrated with Sláintecare; increased cardiac care in community settings; a focus on prevention; capital investment for non-invasive diagnostics and i…

I cannot answer why it has not been done to date but I commit to the Deputy that it will be done and, naturally, I would welcome his engagement on it when it is published. I will be meeting the people involved when I come back from the St. Patrick's Day trip. I look forward to getting it published then because, as the Deputy says, it is incredibly important that it is done. Recent trends in the demand for cardiac services reflect the changes in population and the health needs of an ageing population, which consider…