There can be.

I want to thank colleagues for their support for this Bill; it is great to see the House united on this issue. I want to reiterate that we are on the path to universal healthcare. There are significant problems in our system, as we know. People are waiting too long for care and there are services which are not fully rolled out across the country. There are issues that patients and families are dealing with every day, and every one of us in this House wants to do everything we can to help them as quickly as possible…

-----and saying that this works for patients and that it has to work right across our system. If we are going to achieve our common goal of universal healthcare for people in this country, we need record levels of investment in capacity, which is happening, and at the same time we must see a radical agenda of reform right across the system. We have to achieve both. Several Deputies have asked what is left in terms of hospital charges for patients. There are only two things left. First is a €100 charge for the accid…

Who is going to rent the houses?

The bereavement services have been getting better. There has been much investment of funding in them and, much more importantly, healthcare professionals in maternity hospitals have expanded bereavement services. I have met families who have lost children and have benefited from the bereavement services. If the Deputy wants to give me the details of the suggestion he raised, I will be happy to bring it back to the national women and infants health programme, NWIHP, which is probably the relevant group, to ask it to…

I thank the Deputy. This is something that Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan and I discussed when we met the neurorehabilitation advocates this morning in the audiovisual room. We have some really positive news on this matter. In last year's budget, we started a significant roll-out of community-based neurorehabilitation services by providing for 23 neurorehabilitation nurses to begin with. New training and education places are being put in place. On the Deputy's specific question about Cork, one of the two new teams t…

I acknowledge the ongoing advocacy of the Deputy and others in respect of this work. The 23 posts have been sanctioned, so the HSE is hiring people. I will revert to the Deputy with an expected timeline. As already stated, the team for CHO 4 will be based at the major trauma centre in CUH. As well as the team going into CHO 2, a further two community rehabilitation teams will be going into CHOs 6 and 7. These will be based in the Bray Civic Centre and the Peamount Healthcare Centre. When these teams are all in plac…

I thank the Deputy. This is a serious issue. I am working with the HSE to get clarification. I will revert to Deputy Murphy as soon as I have it. I expect that clarification in the next few hours.

If the Deputy sends me a note on the specific medication, I will get him a detailed response from the Health Products Regulatory Authority. With regard to the neurorehabilitation teams, there will be nine of them throughout the country, one of which will be located in CUH. I will revert to the House with an expected timeline for hiring. The HSE is engaged in a process of hiring those neurorehabilitation nurses and creating an integrated care pathway for people in Cork.

I fully agree. We report on the oral health and community based waiting lists. The categories about which we spoke yesterday are the acute categories that are reported by the National Treatment Purchase Fund. We have allocated €5 million specifically for the backlog relating to orthodontic treatment. Far too many children are waiting to be seen. That numbers on that list went up, and we are determined to bring them back down. We will be reporting on progress made.

We have a slightly unusual procedural situation as this is very comprehensive legislation with many sections. With any Bill I have ever seen introduced, the Minister obviously goes through all the sections. However, this would take over twice as long as the time I have for my opening statement so, with colleagues' agreement, I will speak very briefly to the totality of the Bill and start to go through the sections. We will have provided printed copies so colleagues will have the full speech covering all of the sect…

I will see if I can talk for an hour and 45 minutes. At this point, I probably do not need to read into the record the rest of the sections, given that colleagues have the full intended speech which covers all of that. We will go through the Bill section by section on Committee Stage, if that is okay with colleagues. I would like to start with a few thank yous. I thank Senators for their contributions today. I also thank patient representatives. This obviously includes Vicky Phelan. Her legacy is broader than this …

I welcome this important and timely debate tabled by the Regional Group on the future of our National Ambulance Service. I commend the sponsors of the motion on what is a fair and constructive approach to improving these services. This contrasts starkly with yesterday's Sinn Féin motion on the same topic, which was littered with spin and failed to acknowledge the progress being made by the women and men who work throughout Ireland in the NAS. Deputies will be aware that in parts of Dublin, ambulance services are de…

I will undertake to get back to the Deputy with detail on exactly what appeal mechanisms are available.

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "notes: — the vital role played by the National Ambulance Service (NAS) in Ireland's public health service; — the vital role played by the NAS throughout Ireland's response to the Covid-19 pandemic; — that ambulance services have been experiencing a significant increase in demand in recent years with a record 389,764 emergency ambulance calls received from the public in 2022, a 6 per cent increase on the number received i…

New services are being delivered. I want to finish by again acknowledging that all of this is happening through the tireless efforts, dedication and professionalism of the men and women working in our ambulance services.

This is a matter the Deputy and I have discussed, and on which the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, engages with me probably on a weekly basis. There was a delay that I and none of the Wexford representatives are satisfied with. I have intervened. We are looking at a rapid-build process, which the Tánaiste referenced earlier. We are all aware that it takes too long to put these essential builds in place. I am working with colleagues across the Government and with the HSE to see not only what beds we can put in pla…

It is not acceptable and it is an issue in the Deputy's constituency and right across the country. What the Government has done is funded a very large number of posts. There are several hundred posts in the Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People which have not been filled. I have asked the Department and the HSE to find solutions to this, including, for example, more senior roles and more advanced practitioners. At the same time, the Deputy will be aware of the assessment of need ruling the H…

The ruling on the assessment of need has, unfortunately, caused real problems for the HSE in terms of getting the children the care they need. We have to resolve the assessment of need issue and the recruitment issue the Deputy quite rightly raised.

If the Deputy wants to give me the particulars after this session on that issue, I will look into it. There is now significant funding for diabetes. Deputy Devlin, who is present, chairs the all-party committee on diabetes. Deputy Devlin and I met Diabetes Ireland before the last budget. I committed to Deputy Devlin and to Diabetes Ireland that we would put a strategy in place. One of the issues, as Deputy Pringle correctly pointed out, is that there is no national strategy in place for diabetes and there are there…