I will get a specific answer. That specific query was not included in the question the Deputy submitted, which seeks an update on the totality of the works. The latter is what I endeavoured to provide. I will revert to the Deputy very quickly with the timeline relating to her additional specific question on planning permission. On the new hospital, I had a very constructive meeting with the Saolta group this week. It has a plan that would incorporate a more ambitious project than simply the elective day case hospit…

In defence of University Hospital Galway, I think it is fit for purpose. The staff there do exceptional work. I visited the hospital when I was in opposition.

They do indeed do exceptional work. The proposition of elective hospitals is one being deployed in Cork, Galway and Dublin. It is international best practice and is going well where it is used. Tallaght has secured an elective-only site in its area. The idea is to separate scheduled and unscheduled care as that has good outcomes. I take the point about having a more ambitious plan than just building an elective hospital. The Saolta group shares that view and we had a detailed discussion about the matter during the …

I thank Deputy Bríd Smith for her question. When I received the question, it alarmed me because it suggested something that should not be happening. As a result, I asked for it be looked into. The flu vaccine is free for all healthcare workers working in our public and voluntary hospitals and to all healthcare workers delivering front-line services. It is also available free of charge to all students on clinical placement. Students can access it in local occupational health clinics, vaccination clinics staffed by t…

I thank the Deputy. The two issues are separate. There is the question of vaccinations and the question of students and the allowances they should be paid. I know the Deputy and others are advocating that they become part of the paid workforce. The colleges are strongly opposed to that and are very worried about it. They believe the comparisons with the apprenticeship model could set the profession back decades. Comparisons have been made in this House with Australia, where they run an apprenticeship model and a gr…

We are talking about a different issue now but I am very happy to talk about it. There are two separate issues. One is whether students are being asked to do inappropriate activities while on their clinical placements. Various testimonies have been read out in the Dáil and various students have given testimony in the media and online. As Minister for Health, I take those allegations deadly seriously. I have initiated a full review of all of the allegations. I am meeting with all of the directors of nursing on these…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 83 and 157 together. I thank the Deputy for his question and acknowledge his ongoing advocacy on this very important issue for the region and for his constituency. GP out-of-hours services for Cork and Kerry are provided by SouthDoc. The latter is a private organisation with more than 20 locations across the two counties, including a treatment centre in Blackpool that provides for patients on the north side of Cork city. Further to public health guidance and the curtailment of in-pe…

I thank both Deputies for their responses. As Members will know, all of the relevant services were closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. I have no doubt that the fact that the Blackpool centre remains closed is very frustrating for the people of the north of the city whom the Deputies represent. Reopening it is a priority. The HSE has engaged with SouthDoc to ask for the centre to be reopened and to request a timeline. It is frustrating that a timeline has not been provided. I undertake to follow up with the HSE to …

I thank the Deputy. He asks a very fair question about timelines for timelines. I can make a commitment to both Deputies that I will have a response from the HSE in a matter of days. That does not mean SouthDoc will have provided the timeline that has been requested of it. I will re-emphasise the importance of this and revert to both Deputies on both issues in a matter of days.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 85 and 452 together. The HSE has statutory responsibility for decisions on pricing and reimbursement of medicines under the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013. I am informed that the HSE received two applications for the reimbursement of dupilumab for the treatment of moderate to severe atopic dermatitis in patients who are candidates for systemic therapy: first in November 2017, for treating adult patients, and then in December 2019, for treating adolescents 12 y…

I agree with everything the Deputy has said. The health committee of the previous Dáil spent a lot of time considering this. The good news is that there are some amazing, life-changing and lifesaving new drugs out there. A lot of them are so-called high-tech drugs, which are very expensive, and the HSE has been paying a lot more for such drugs. In recent years, for example, the amount spent on the high-tech drugs alone has gone up from €400 million to €700 million per year, a very significant increase. Part of the …

There have been several conversations and representations about Patisiran, the second drug the Deputy referenced, and I will revert to him and colleagues with an update on it. Any opportunity we can find to accelerate access to these new and exciting drugs should be taken. I had a conversation with medical oncologists just this week on access to new cancer drugs. On the €50 million that has been allocated for new drugs, although there is no set amount yet and the budget does not get sliced up per care pathway, it w…

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have pursued a robust testing and contact tracing strategy. The HSE has worked intensively to put in place a comprehensive, reliable and responsive testing and tracing operation in a very short timeframe.  The redeployment of existing staff from other areas of the HSE, including front-line services as the Deputy pointed out, was an essential part of this response. Since the height of the pandemic there has been a significant return of staff to non-Covid front-line roles. This…

To answer the Deputy's direct question on the number of people in contact tracing, there are now no therapists or front-line community therapists working in contact tracing. They have all been redeployed. There is a current workforce of 736 in swabbing. Of those, 411 are redeployed staff. That combines both the therapists we are discussing and those with non-patient-facing roles. From memory, and I am open to correction, I received a report ten to 14 days ago that the number of therapy grades in swabbing was at 279…

It would be easy for us to say that Covid should be a fully stand-alone service line within the HSE and that we should be able to run one of the most comprehensive testing and tracing systems in the world independent of the existing HSE workforce, but that would not be a realistic request to the HSE. The HSE has pointed out repeatedly that while it is redeploying and is back-filling posts as fast as it can, it is a difficult recruiting environment generally. It has also said that the swabbing centres and swabbing s…

As I mentioned to Deputy Cullinane earlier, I recognise the importance of student nurses and midwives completing their essential clinical placements in a safe environment.  During the first surge of Covid-19 it was not possible to facilitate student placements from April onwards. This was due to redeployment of staff, including senior nurses who would ordinarily be supervising the students. There was a particularly high rate of absenteeism and the HSE’s directors of nursing said they could not ensure clinical place…

They do not want their students to be paid as healthcare assistants.

I will need 60 seconds to respond, but if I do not have that, it is okay.

I will take this opportunity to update the House on the Government's ongoing response to Covid-19. Right now, as we look to exit level 5, we are at a critical juncture. From a healthcare perspective, we are facing the most challenging winter in living memory, and the solidarity and resilience that have been shown by our healthcare workers and the entire country will be more important than ever in the coming weeks. We are five weeks into the level 5 measures and, like many countries, Ireland has faced big decisions …

I thank first of all the Chair, Deputy McNamara, and the members of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response for their very hard and diligent work over many months throughout this year. The committee’s work has been invaluable in gathering information, questioning witnesses and in promoting a greater degree of understanding of this new virus. I am sure the House will also join me in thanking the many witnesses who made themselves available to the committee to assist it in its work, particularly in the context of …