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

I propose to take Questions No. 1 to 8, 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 Thursday, 9 December. It is currently scheduled to meet next on Monday, 28 February.

In addition to meetings of the full Cabinet and Cabinet committees, I meet with Ministers on an individual basis to focus on different issues. I meet regularly with the Minister for Health to discuss priorities in the area of health, including Sláintecare and, in particular, our management and response to Covid-19. The health sector faced significant challenges this winter with the surge of the Omicron variant we saw over the Christmas period. We will now refocus our efforts on the resumption of non-Covid health and social care and progress commitments to reform the health service.

The year 2022 will see the biggest ever investment in the health system to deliver Sláintecare, reduce waiting lists, increase capacity, protect the most vulnerable and address inequalities. Over the coming weeks and months, work will continue to advance a number of priority programmes of work identified in the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy and Action Plan 2021-2023, including progressing six new regional health areas, the multiannual waiting list reduction plan and taking steps towards the establishment of elective care centres in counties Dublin, Cork and Galway.

We will continue our investment in an expanded public health service and embed the lessons learned in the pandemic into community and primary care services. In this regard, the Minister for Health last week announced the establishment of a public health reform expert advisory group. The expert group will initially focus on identifying learnings from the public health components of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Ireland, with a view towards strengthening health protection generally and future public health pandemic preparedness specifically. The expert group will then examine the key components of the existing delivery models for public health in Ireland, with a view to recommending an appropriate operating model to develop and oversee the delivery of public health in Ireland into the future.

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