I thank Senator Lombard and the Members of this House for giving me for an opportunity to address this matter today on behalf of the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. I believe anybody could stand up here, as Senator Lombard has done, and talk about what we have to offer in their own part of Ireland. I live in County Waterford, near the greenway and between the sea and the mountains. Regardless of whether you live in beautiful west Cork, Kerry, Galway or elsewhere, our country has so …

We know that significant economic and social benefits are derived from facilitating access to and from the regions. Air connectivity to key regional hubs is essential to support incoming tourism, foreign direct investment and indigenous businesses. In that regard, the €3 million allocated to the regional co-operative marketing fund in 2023 will enable Tourism Ireland to explore new access routes and maximise the potential of existing services to the regions and match funding from airlines, sea carriers, airports, p…

I thank Senator Gallagher on behalf of the Minister for Health for raising this important issue. The Minister recognises the significant role community pharmacists play in the delivery of patient care. Community pharmacy is often the most accessible avenue to receiving such care and provides a vital link in our healthcare systems by ensuring the safe supply of medicines to people. We saw that come to the fore during the Covid-19 period when our community pharmacists were the first port of call for many people, as t…

The Minister is absolutely committed to the ethos of ensuring that the right care is delivered in the right place at the right time for all citizens. He recognises that all healthcare professionals have a role to play in optimising patient care and service delivery in line with this vision. An example of the importance of the role of community pharmacists can be found in their participation in the free contraception scheme for women aged 17 to 25, which launched in September 2022. The scheme was extended to 26-year…

I would like to thank the Senator, on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, for providing the opportunity to update the House on Drimnagh primary care centre. A central objective of the programme for Government is to deliver increased levels of integrated health care, with service delivery reoriented towards general practice, primary care and community-based services to enable a home first approach. Primary care centres play an essential role in the delivery of that objective and significant progress has…

I reiterate that we have seen a huge expansion of primary care services and centres over the past ten years. We have 165, with 14 under construction, 12 of which are scheduled to be delivered in 2023. Unfortunately, however, the one in Drimnagh is not included in that. There is one close to my heart in Waterford that I am trying to push as well but the precedent is there. Every year, like the HSE-run community nursing units, which we announced seven of in December, the roll-out will continue because there is a stra…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak about the ten supported care homes in the south east. It is not often that I get to put the information on the record of the Dáil. There are ten supported care homes in community healthcare organisation, CHO, 5. These provide accommodation and support services to older people with low to medium dependency levels. They are not nursing homes and they will never fall under the fair deal scheme because they work with people who are …

I thank the Deputy for her continued support for and interest in supported care homes. In fairness to the Deputies representing the three counties in question, we all come together to support these care homes. They are unique facilities. Older persons who can no longer live at home but do not need a nursing home can go into one of these facilities, where there are plenty of staff and they can come and go. They can go to the shop for a newspaper. They are provided with three meals a day. The majority of residents ha…

I will respond to the Deputy's third question first. As he will be aware, the national implementation and monitoring committee, NIMC, is the oversight body in charge of ensuring Sharing the Vision: A Mental Health Policy for Everyone is delivered. A sub-committee which reports to me every three months has recently been formed. Its reports are on the NIMC website. The sub-committee was in place before this report was published. It was asked to look at children ageing-out of CAMHS at 18. We are looking at extending t…

In total there were 168 children lost to follow-up. There were 140 in CHO 3 in the Limerick area. They were identified by the team there before the Mental Health Commission had come in. It was a result of a lack of staff. There were only three consultant psychiatrists working there and at present there are seven. The other 28 were between three other CHOs. My understanding is that the 168 cases, some of whom have been identified, will form part of the review. Contact will made with the young persons and their paren…

I thank Deputy Ward. I agree that it will be a catalyst. I want to make several points. I asked for all of these audits and reviews to be put in place 12 months ago, as a result of the Maskey report in Kerry. The main concern I had after the report was for the 240 children in Kerry at risk and the 48 who had significant harm caused to them. There were many challenges but the overprescribing did not come through in the report. This has to be looked at. It is something we were worried about. There are 73 CAMHS team a…

I thank Deputy Smith. I am delighted that he has raised this issue. It is not something that we get to discuss very much. It is only when people are bereaved that they use these supports. It is important that people know they are available. Responsibility for bereavement counselling and associated services lies across a variety of services areas. This is why it can be confusing for people. The national counselling service, NCS, is an essential part of the HSE's mental health provision and provides a professional an…

I thank Deputy Smith. He is aware of Rethink Ireland, which is an organisation that funds various supports. Recently I visited the Solas Centre in Waterford. One of the programmes it runs is to provide information and supports for teachers in schools with a child in the class who has lost a parent to cancer or where a child has died of cancer. We have found this to be very effective. The Children's Grief Centre in Limerick is a very important initiative. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, works very closely wi…

I do not disagree with the Deputy. With regard to the level 4 specialist trauma informed bereavement counselling, the NCS provides trauma informed bereavement counselling for more complex cases in some CHO areas, so we have that in CHOs 1, 8 and 9, although not in the other six areas. This service is available to both medical card and non-medical card holders, which is very important, and clients can self-refer or be referred by a GP or health professional. I agree with the Deputy on this. Since I started back visi…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. He is correct that we have an ageing population. It is something we must endorse and embrace and that is what we are doing. The World Health Organization, WHO, has determined that we have the highest life expectancy in Europe, at 82 years of age. I am conscious of the Minister's comment a few minutes ago that we hear a lot of negativity but to have the highest life expectancy in Europe means we are doing something right.

Work is ongoing in the Department to progress the development of the new home support scheme. This involves a lot of complicated work, as the Deputy will understand. There is a regulatory framework comprising primary legislation for the licensing of home support providers, secondary legislation in the form of regulations and HIQA national standards that are in development. All this has the aim of ensuring all service users are provided with high-quality care. Two Bills are being worked on and I hope to have them in…

The Deputy makes a valid point. There are many people in our country who are not in a position to work and are highly qualified and skilled. They can work now after six months but we are sitting on a lot of people who have expertise.

We want to promote home care as a viable career opportunity. I worked very closely with the former Minister of State, Deputy English. On 1 January this year - we are six weeks into the process now - 1,000 permits were issued for people from outside the EU to come here and provide home care. We hope they will do so. This approach worked in the nursing home sector, where 2,640 permits have been issued. That is important. On the Deputy's initial question, in order to put in place this statutory home care we need the i…

Yes.

I thank Deputy O'Dowd for his comments. I am on the same page as him. I will never compromise on standards.