Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last year, the Minister for Health allocated €2.7 million to kickstart the national strategy for genomics and genetic medicine, aiming to bolster our health services capacity in genomics. However, progress has been stymied by recruitment shortfalls. At the last count, only ten of the 18 roles have been recruited under last year's application. The eight outstanding roles will not be appointed and have been merged into five roles planned for recruitment in 2024. Therefore, by the end of 2024, there will be 15 new hires under the strategy rather than the planned 23. If the failure to recruit staff was not bad enough, as I say, there is no plan in place for where we are going to house the new main laboratory for genetic testing in Ireland when CHI Crumlin is relocated. Will they be left wandering the halls of an empty Crumlin hospital after everything else has moved out? We need answers, we need action and we need them now.

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