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

I thank Deputy Shortall for raising the issue. When the pandemic began, testing and tracing capacity within the country was virtually non-existent, in terms of the requirements to combat a pandemic. It was literally built from scratch. The Deputy is correct that for quite a number of years there has been a lack of resourcing of public health medicine in general. The Deputy will know that from her own time in government as well. I support what she has just said. In my view, very rapid progress has been made in developing a testing and tracing capacity, and particularly from the summer onwards, so much so that our testing and tracing capacity more generally is up there in the top tier of the European Union member states. It is a more independent workforce now than at the start of the pandemic when a lot of people were redeployed, of necessity, to engage in testing and tracing.

In relation to public health, the resources have now been provided in the budget. Resourcing has been provided to the HSE to recruit personnel and to double overall the staffing within the public health domain.

I agree with the Deputy on the need for a consultant-led approach to public health. A consultant-led public health model is a priority of the Government. There have been ongoing discussions between the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Health, and also involving the unions and the partners. I hope that those would be brought to a conclusion quickly and that the process would conclude in terms of the consultant issue in particular. The plan is to double the current workforce in public health, including an additional 255 permanent staff at an annual cost of more than €17 million. This was included in the €4 billion allocated to Health for 2021 - €2 billion for Covid and €2 billion for non-Covid - which allows for the embedding of a permanent workforce in a number of areas into the future. It is not just a pandemic era investment in public health; it is for the long haul. Engagement has commenced with the Irish Medical Organisation. There are issues, while doing this, so that we also reform the public health model in line with Sláintecare. A lot of work has been undertaken by the Department and the HSE in terms of a detailed framework for the future public health model. That, of course, includes consultant level roles. That engagement has begun between the IMO, the Department and the HSE going back to January. I have asked that this would be brought to a timely conclusion. The Government is committed to doing this.

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