Budget 2021 is the biggest investment in the history of our State and it is coming at a time when we need to protect the lives and the livelihood of our people. I welcome the allocation of an additional €50 million for mental health services in this year's budget, which comprises €38 million for policy and operational development and €12 million to underpin the cost of existing services. This brings the total HSE mental health allocation to €1.076 billion, which is the biggest ever mental health budget. The challen…

I am sorry; I was not aware of that. I will finish very quickly.

I am sorry; I was not informed. There will also be significant investment in community beds, which will provide intermediate care, including more than 600 new rehabilitation beds. We are bringing a renewed focus on dementia care in this budget to address the challenges faced by people living with this condition and for those who care for them. I am pleased to announce that €12.9 million has been allocated across the 2021 budget to improve the quality of life for people living with dementia and their families to ass…

Before I start, I wish to congratulate Leas-Chathaoirleach on his appointment. It is a significant honour for him and his family, and is well deserved. Déanaim comhghairdeas leis.

I thank Senator Seery Kearney for her question. She has made her points very well in relation to this issue, which has been raised on many occasions in both Houses. I am responding on behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, who is unavailable this morning. The disabled parking scheme operates by segregating a proportion of public parking bays for the use of disabled parking permit holders. These permits, which are also known as European parking cards or disabled parking badges, ar…

I assure the Senator that the Department of Transport is very aware of the complex challenges facing the various groups she mentioned today, whether people with physical disabilities that do not directly affect mobility or people with autism or intellectual disabilities and their parents and carers. I take on board the Senator's point, which she made very well, that the primary medical certificate sets out the criteria, which are quite stringent given that the person applying must have lost two upper limbs as oppos…

I am taking this question on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. I thank the Senator for asking this particular question. As today is our first day since the whole country entered into level 3, it is very timely. A comprehensive, reliable and responsive testing and tracing operation is central to our public health strategy for containing and slowing the spread of Covid-19. Capacity is in place to test 15,000 people a day and overall the system is working well. Rigorous contact tracing, autom…

I thank the Senator again. As I stated earlier, the HSE advises that it is currently meeting all testing demand nationally and across the end-to-end tracing process, with adequate swabbing and laboratory capacity. The HSE has had capacity to conduct approximately 100,000 tests since May, about 30% of which was off-shore. However, over the summer months, it has built laboratory capacity up to 100,000 per week on the island. In addition, the HSE has added surge capacity of 2,000 per day from its German laboratory par…

I thank Senator O'Loughlin for raising this matter. As she has said, this is an area on which I have worked tirelessly in the past as co-chairman of the all-party committee on dementia. I congratulate Senator O'Loughlin on taking over that role and I know she will do fantastic work.

I am fully aware that Covid-19 has placed significant additional pressures on people with dementia and their families. I recently convened a round table discussion with carers. Unfortunately we had to conduct it online and reduce the numbers involved but I specifically asked to speak to people caring for people with dementia and mental health challenges and particularly to people who were full-time carers and did not work outside the home. To be honest, listening to them was very hard. Their stories were very stark…

I thank the Senator very much. Her points are very well made. In addition to the winter plan, which I mentioned earlier, some €22 million has been provided in the 2020 national service plan for dementia-specific services including more than €7.5 million in funding for dementia-specific home care packages and the extension of the dementia adviser services, with the additional ten advisers to be recruited this year. This should make a significant difference. Support is to be given to key voluntary organisations such …

I thank the Senator for his question. It is very timely as we head into the winter months and face the normal challenges we see in our acute hospitals. I welcome the opportunity to update the House on the new 60-bed ward block at University Hospital Limerick. The hospital is a model 4 hospital which provides major surgery, cancer care treatment and emergency care in the region as well as a range of other medical, diagnostic and therapeutic services. As the Senator has said, it covers Clare, Limerick, north Tipperar…

The Government is committed to developing acute hospital services and infrastructure. University Hospital Limerick is an integral part of the University Limerick Hospitals Group, providing hospital services and care to the populations of Limerick, Clare and north Tipperary. The hospital provides quality patient care, delivered safely by skilled and valued staff through the best use of their available resources. This is achieved through the commitment, hard work and professionalism of all the hospital staff. From a …

I thank the Acting Chairman for his kind wishes. I welcome this opportunity to address the House on the winter plan, which was published by the Health Service Executive on 24 September. Every winter, our healthcare system faces increasing pressures on it, making it more difficult for people, particularly older people, to access treatment as quickly as we would wish. This is particularly noticeable in emergency departments, which see overcrowding, longer waiting times and patients receiving care on trolleys. This ye…

Eighty minutes would be more what I need. I thank the 16 Senators who spoke for their contributions. Some strayed outside the remit of the winter plan but I will confine myself in my reply to addressing the questions that related to specific aspects of the plan. An issue raised by several speakers was the availability of the flu vaccine. I was in the Seanad on two occasions last week to address matters raised by Senators Keogan and Paul Daly in the Commencement debate. We had a very good debate in both instances. I…

I am pleased to report these final amendments to the House. The Bill contains important patient safety measures and I know from the earlier Dáil and Seanad debates that there is strong support across the House for this legislation and a common desire to support its progression. The Bill makes significant changes to the five health profession regulatory Acts, particularly in the areas of fitness to practise and registration, and is keenly awaited by stakeholders. I propose to take amendments Nos. 1 to 3, inclusive, …

I propose to take Seanad amendments Nos. 4 to 6, inclusive, 17 and 18, 24 to 26, inclusive, 46 to 49, inclusive, 59 and 60 together. Regulators can impose a range of sanctions on a practitioner following a fitness to practise inquiry. The most serious of these include cancelling a person's registration, suspending the registration for a period of time or attachment of conditions to a person's practice. Before these sanctions take effect they must be confirmed by the High Court. Regulators can also choose to impose …

I propose to take amendments Nos. 7, 19, 27, 50 and 61 together. As with the previous amendments, these relate to the treatment of the minor sanctions of advice, admonish and censure. The Bill initially provided that regulators would in future be required to publish information in all cases where these sanctions were imposed. Colleagues in both Houses expressed concern that this measure would have a disproportionate impact on those receiving minor sanctions. Following consultation with the regulators and representa…

I propose to take amendments Nos. 11 to 15, inclusive, together. These amendments are consequent on Dáil amendments on Committee Stage. They relate to section 29 of the Bill, which amends the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 to allow a small cohort of practitioners to apply for registration with the Physiotherapists Registration Board. The Bill as passed by the Dáil amends the 2005 Act in two ways. It deletes a restrictive date requirement for receipt of a particular qualification and, consequently, ex…

This amendment relates to pharmaceutical assistants and was proposed and supported by a number of Senators. It will amend the Pharmacy Act 2007 to provide two new functions for the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland. Specifically, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland will be required to ensure that pharmaceutical assistants undertake continuous professional development and that they comply with specific legislation related to enactments for which it supervises compliance. Officials continue to engage with the Pharm…