Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will need to see how that situation evolves. The current position is that the vaccines are incredibly effective and very safe. As the Chairman rightly stated, there are side effects within the normal parameters of people being vaccinated. For the moment, that is the focus.

We are aware of a number of challenges to hotel quarantine. I can share with the committee that, when the additional exemptions were put in place, particularly for those who were fully vaccinated, a few of the potential cases fell away. Exemptions are also in place in respect of professional and elite sports. The cases are being fought in the normal way. A substantial contingency fund is in place for Covid-related issues, though, and I would not anticipate seeking additional funding from the Oireachtas this year for those issues.

I could not agree more with the Chairman regarding local drugs task forces. I met the members of the local drugs task force in Ballymun early last year. The stories they told about the impact that crack cocaine was having on the community there were horrifying. We are seeing it in parts of Wicklow as well. People working in addiction services and the drugs task force there are watching the situation closely and are very concerned. Many of the team members I met in Ballymun had been involved in the response to the heroin epidemic. They are hardened, seasoned professionals, but they said that they had never seen anything like the damage that crack cocaine was doing. As the Chairman stated, the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, is leading on this matter. A sizable additional fund has been provided to Healthy Ireland, homelessness and addiction services.

It is certainly something on which I want to see more and more done.

There are other issues we are trying to fix in the background. For example, if a person somewhere in Ireland is living in addiction, there is a fair chance that he or she will receive a rent supplement. If he or she moves into a residential addiction programme, he or she will lose that. One of the steps we are trying to take is to have a more co-ordinated approach in the State. If, for example, that funding can be transferred to the addiction service providers, more and more people can get addiction help. I could not agree more with the Chairman on the need to fund an increased capacity for the local drug task forces but also for the myriad services around them in order that we can treat addiction as a health, rather than criminal, issue, which is exactly what we want to do.

The next issue the Chairman raised related to scoliosis. The current circumstances are not acceptable. On 26 March this year, a total of 119 patients were waiting on spinal fusion, excluding the suspensions, which was an increase of 20 patients compared with March 2020. We know that many waiting lists have increased because of Covid and the suspension of some surgery, but 70 patients were on the waiting lists for other spinal procedures, which was a decrease against March 2020. Nonetheless, the current waiting times for scoliosis treatment, if someone needs to go through the public system, are not acceptable. It is an area we are examining as we put together the detailed planning around the access to care fund. All of us who are party health spokespeople or were involved in the Committee on the Future of Healthcare are acutely aware of the untold suffering of young men and women and boys and girls, and the awful implications of having to wait. It is not acceptable. There is going to be money available and we are going to crack this so that on the public system, these young men and women and boys and girls get not just the care they need but the care they need when they need it.

The next issue related to dentists. I might get the committee a detailed briefing note on that, given that it is not related to the Estimates today. I am aware that, as the Chairman referenced, the association has stated that more and more of its members are leaving the public list, which, obviously, we do not want. Again, everything we are doing is about building up our public health system and increasing access, and there is no question but that in the area of oral health, very significant financial barriers are in place. That is not acceptable and needs to be acted on.

On vitamin D, I saw the report and thought it was excellent. All I can do is agree with the Chairman. On foot of the report from the committee, I sought a review from NPHET of the relationship between vitamin D and Covid, and it reverted to say that while it did not have evidence of a reduction in risk specifically from Covid, it wholeheartedly endorsed taking the recommended dose of vitamin D for general well-being and a strong immune system.