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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 15 to 19, inclusive, together.

The Cabinet committee on health oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments in relation to health, receives detailed reports on identified policy areas and considers the implementation of health reforms, including Sláintecare. The Cabinet committee last met on Monday, 14 December and will meet again shortly. In addition to the meetings of the full Cabinet and of Cabinet committees, I meet Ministers on an individual basis to focus on different issues. I meet the Minister for Health regularly to discuss priorities in the area of health and in particular our management of and response to Covid-19.

The pandemic has led to unprecedented interruption to normal healthcare activity in both acute and community settings. Since the outset of the pandemic, patients and services have been clinically prioritised and the HSE has ensured that time-critical services, along with many routine services, have been protected, meaning that people who need it currently have had access to the services.

To ensure services are restored in a clinically prioritised manner, last week the HSE published a plan for restoring health and social care services in a Covid-19 environment, entitled A Safe Return to Health Services. This plan provides an operational framework for the safe return to services at a local level. It includes an overview of the services to be resumed, the target for their safe return and some detail on the conditions and challenges that have to be met. Every phase has been informed by clinical guidance and putting patient safety first. The full restoration of health care is dependent on continuing to suppress Covid-19 to avoid another surge for our health services and the associated impacts.

See this speech in context