Let us see what the research comes back with. I acknowledge the Deputy's position and I know there are others here and around the world who share his view. I want to see what the evidence comes back with and we can then look at clinical recommendations about expanding the conditions. Part of why it might be more limited than would have been expected is good news. Approximately 85% of the expected cost for the programme was specifically being attributed to refractory epilepsy patients. In December last year, the HSE…

I thank the Deputy. I agree that the time patients are having to wait in emergency departments is not acceptable. Much of that is due to Covid and it is frustrating for everyone, including the patients, our healthcare professionals and all of us, because there is a level of capacity in the system now that has never been there before. There are more hospital beds, doctors, nurses and healthcare assistants than ever before. There is more community-based care than there has ever been. There are more home care hours an…

In the short term, one of the issues we are looking at is exactly the point the Deputy has raised. The injury units are superb. Many people who are walking into emergency departments could be seen quicker in an injury unit. We are considering whether the injury units can be opened for longer. Can they see more people? There are age limits on many of the injury units. Is everybody in the community aware of exactly the kind of injuries for which one would attend an injury unit? For example, there is a brilliant injur…

The Deputy raised the example of Waterford, which is a great example of what can be done. A specialist team was sent into Waterford a few years ago. I stand to be corrected but from memory, I was told that it went from being one of the worst performing in respect of patient waiting times to the best. They have done things differently in Waterford.

There are, for example, overflow beds. The hospital is doing incredibly well. We have taken the same approach, for example, in Kerry and Limerick, where we have sent in specialist teams. There is a plan. It is a living document and as we learn more, the plan changes. I would be very happy to share the draft we have now with the Deputy. There are at least ten specific items that are being actioned for Limerick. The team is down there right now working with management to try to achieve in Limerick exactly what was ac…

The situation the Deputy has described is unacceptable. Everybody who has a medical card needs to be able to access a dentist under the dental treatment service scheme. As the Deputy has quite rightly identified, the number of dentists participating in the scheme has fallen substantially, particularly over the past two years. There was a precipitous drop in participants in 2019, 2020, 2021 and this year. I looked at the figures for the Deputy’s county and that is seen in Wexford as well. Unfortunately, the majority…

In an emergency situation, people should get in touch with the HSE, which will do several things. The first thing it will do is contact dentists who are on the scheme in the area and try to arrange emergency care or an emergency visit. In an extreme situation, the care can be provided directly by a HSE dentist. However, there is a very limited number of HSE dentists and they are spending most of their time treating children, for example. That is the direct answer in terms of emergency care. The Deputy comes from a …

The only person waffling here is the Deputy. She dismissed a massive increase. She said that an increase from €40 million to €66 million is not substantial. That is nonsense. The only person talking rubbish here right now is the Deputy.

The Deputy does not even have the courtesy to let other people in this Chamber speak. We all have to listen to her nonsense, waffle and insults.

I have just answered the questions. By the way, the Deputy just described the Irish healthcare system as a Third World healthcare system.

And the Deputy repeated it here. I wonder how many Third World healthcare systems she has been in. What an insult from the Deputy, as an elected Member, to come here and say that. What an insult to all of the dentists, doctors-----

-----and nurses. What we will do while she waffles is fix the problem.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I met some of the representatives outside the Kildare Street gates just last week and we discussed these issues. The HSE’s national clinical programme for neurology has engaged with the patient organisations to identify service requirements for neurology nurse specialists. The clinical programme recognises the value of highly trained nursing staff and endorses the expansion of the neurology nursing workforce, including for Parkinson’s disease. I support it as wel…

I recognise there is a shortage in the Cork and Munster area. In fact, it was one of the things that was raised in the conversation I had with the representative from the patient group just last week. The Deputy's question was whether we can we look at Cork and the Munster area as one of the areas that clearly does not have the level of resources that it needs and, therefore, is one of the areas that can be prioritised. The answer is “Yes”. We can of course look at that. There is annual funding of nearly €3 million…

I thank the Deputy. I did meet Tony Wilkinson outside the gates of Leinster House. At the moment, there are five Parkinson's disease nurse specialists in the acute section, that is, in acute neurology. They are in Limerick, St. Vincent's, Tallaght, the Mater and Galway hospitals. The Deputy made the point that we do not have one of the nurse specialists in Cork at the moment. That is something we need to address. We also need to do so in the context of other parts of the country. The aim of the national clinical pr…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue relating to recruitment generally, as well as for health and social care professionals and therapists and, as the Deputy rightly stated, in the area of children's disability services. I acknowledge that recruitment is very challenging at present, particularly as we are dealing with the effects of the global pandemic. However, it is worth noting that recruitment in the past two years has been the highest in the history of the HSE. There is a lot more that needs to …

There are two groups specifically providing the service for children with disabilities. One is the community disability network teams through the progressing disability services strategy and the other is what we would consider to be normal primary care teams. The hundreds of vacant posts are in the area of progressing disability services. They are being filled but we need to do so as quickly as possible. As regards primary care, I am delighted to be able to say that we have sanctioned 3,500 staff across the country…

It is certainly something that can be examined. Many different areas, such as advanced practitioners in health and social care professional grades, are also being considered as well. We are looking into a lot of innovation in this regard. To go back to the original question on international recruitment, we are supplementing the national workforce through international recruitment across several professions. The recruitment of doctors from overseas has long been a feature of HSE recruitment but, last year, in additi…

Eligibility for a medical card is primarily based on a financial assessment in accordance with the Act of 1970. The issue of granting medical cards on the basis of illness or a disability was previously examined in 2014 by an expert panel on medical need and medical card eligibility. The panel concluded that it was not feasible, desirable or ethically justifiable to list medical conditions in priority order for medical card eligibility. An example was where there was discussion around medical cards for cancer patie…

I fully agree that we should not have a situation where somebody with a disability can and wants to go to work, but if he or she does, he or she will go over the income threshold and thereby lose the medical card. We all appreciate how important it is, as the Deputy pointed out, particularly for people with disabilities to retain the medical card. In that regard, I will be happy to discuss it further with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. No doubt Deputy Moynihan will continue to do so as well. If there is a …