Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 to 6, inclusive, together.

The Cabinet committee on health was established by a Government decision on 6 July and held its first meeting on 28 July. It will meet again in the coming weeks. It will oversee implementation of programme for Government commitments in respect of health, receive detailed reports on identified policy areas and consider the implementation of health reforms, including Sláintecare and the development of mental health services.

In addition to the meetings of the full Cabinet and of Cabinet committees, I meet Ministers individually to focus on different issues. I regularly meet the Minister for Health to discuss priorities in the area of health and in particular our management and response to Covid-19. The Covid-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented interruption to normal healthcare activity, with both community and acute settings affected. Resuming health and social care services, and building our capacity and capability for the pressures of winter 2020-2021 and beyond, will be particularly challenging in a way that the health service has not experienced in living memory.

Earlier today, I launched our medium-term plan, Resilience and Recovery 2020-2021: Plan for Living with Covid-19, which frames Ireland's approach to managing and living with Covid-19 for the coming six to nine months. It aims to bring some clarity to help everyone to plan over the medium term. The plan contains a framework for restrictive measures, which is a risk management strategy for the next six to nine months. It is designed to allow individuals, families, businesses and services better understand, anticipate and prepare for the measures the Government might introduce to stop escalation of the transmission of the disease.

In the context of the health service, the plan sets out our approach and priorities for managing and living with Covid in a range of areas, including, among other measures, prevention of infection and protection of vulnerable groups, health system response and resilience, and the continued resumption of public service delivery, including non-Covid health and social care. It is important to recognise that many vital services have continued throughout the pandemic, ensuring that priority care needs were addressed and the most vulnerable protected even at the height of this crisis.

A range of initiatives have been developed, and as these continue to be rolled out in the coming weeks and months, we will see further service resumption and increased capacity throughout the community and acute hospital system. This includes implementing new initiatives, new ways of working and eHealth solutions to keep people safe and out of the acute hospital system, such as ePharmacy, ePrescribing and virtual clinics. Today, the Cabinet agreed to allocate a record €600 million for the 2020 winter initiative to ensure that our health service has the capacity and resources needed to deal with what is forecast to be a particularly challenging few months.

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