Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee this morning. First, to follow on from one of Senator Burke's questions and Mr. Woods's response regarding the 125 nurses and midwives that have been put in place, does that mean they have been recruited? What does "put in place" mean? Are those 125 personnel now working in the service?

The Minister for health promotion is not here but the Minister for Health might address the matter of the notable decline in the uptake of the HPV vaccine in the past year. When the former Minister for Health, Mary Harney, introduced this she expected an uptake of the HPV vaccine of approximately 80%. My understanding is that we exceeded that, with an uptake of approximately 90%, but due to various factors, including a fairly aggressive social media campaign and various claims about the side effect profile of the vaccine, we are heading towards an uptake rate of under 50%. That is concerning because it is in breach of the concept of herd immunity and in terms of how we had the possibility of eradicating cervical cancer for people like my young daughters. My understanding is that the fall-off in the rate of the vaccine uptake could translate to the deaths of 40 girls who are now 12, 13 and 14 years of age. Forty girls in that cohort will die of cervical cancer directly as a result of the fall-off in the vaccination rate. I would like the Minister to outline how that can be addressed. I want to highlight that the next phase in vaccination was for young boys. There has been a huge rise in head, neck and anogenital cancers in men. The HPV vaccine was to be rolled out to boys but as a result of the impact of a campaign, young boys are now not being vaccinated. There is a sense of inequality in that boys are not getting what we planned to give them.

Second, the Minister or the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, might update me on the policy regarding medicinal cannabis use, about which there has been much talk lately, where we are going with that and the timeframe. There is concern among people with multiple sclerosis and parents of children suffering from seizures that this particular medication could assist them. The Minister might outline the position on that.

I am delighted to hear that the Minister is progressing the planning for the tri-location model at the St. James's hospital site and the maternity hospital. One of the main reasons I entered politics was to seek to have a maternity hospital and a children's hospital on the same site.

The effect of having one's child taken from one at birth and brought to a separate hospital is something I would not like anyone to have to go through.

We have a wonderful national maternity strategy. It reminds me of the introduction of the cancer strategy when I first returned to Ireland from the UK. We have a wonderful document to which many skilled clinicians in this country have given their time and expertise out of sheer dedication to the health service. Those of us who are elected - those who recently came to the House and those who are longer serving - know that we are very good at doing reports but there seems to be a major problem in the context of taking action and implementing policy. Could the Minister indicate how we will outline the national maternity strategy? If she is not in a position to do so today, perhaps in the future the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, might refer to how the mental health of mothers could be incorporated into the strategy in order that we can combine maternity services and mental health services when women go into hospital to have children?

Deputy Louise O'Reilly mentioned workforce planning. That is a major issue. What I hear from doctors and others working in the health service is that in the past medical people went away and did training in Canada or Australia and they always wanted to come back to Ireland. Now, however, it appears that they do not want to return. This is just anecdotal evidence that I have heard. When there is a vacancy for a well-paid post, first, nobody applies for it and then sometimes the person who applies for and gets the job is not the individual one would ideally want to fill the position. There is a knock-on effect on the quality of care. I am concerned about the lack of buy-in on the part of medical professionals in respect of the system. I would like to hear if our guests are aware of any new initiatives to try to encourage medical professionals who trained here and who had their education paid for by the State to return to Ireland. We are essentially exporting them and not getting them back any longer. In the past, we used to benefit from the experience of other countries but now we are not getting those people back.