Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Tógfaidh mé Ceisteanna Uimh. 11 go 22, go huile, le chéile.

The Cabinet committee on health met on 13 February and is due to meet again on 27 March.

In addition to meetings of the full Cabinet and of Cabinet committees, I meet Ministers individually to focus on different issues. I meet regularly with the Minister for Health to discuss challenges in the area of health and the Sláintecare reform programme.

The primary aim in 2023 is to improve access, outcomes and affordability for patients, and that is what Sláintecare is all about. We are committed to expanding the core capacity of our acute hospitals with more health professionals and more acute hospital beds. Over the past three years we have added approximately 1,000 hospital beds, more if community beds are included, with further additional beds planned for this year and next. We aim to increase our public health and social care workforce by 6,000 this year. We already have 6,000 more nurses, doctors, dentists and midwives than we had three years ago.

A strong pipeline of capital projects is being developed by the HSE and the Department of Health, including several new hospital projects and significant new facilities in existing hospitals.

Budget 2023 includes €443 million in funding to treat tens of thousands of people on waiting lists and to reduce the waiting times faced by all. Our multi-annual approach to reducing and reforming waiting lists resulted in an overall reduction in the number of patients exceeding the maximum Sláintecare waiting time, that is, roughly three months, by 11% in 2022. The number of people waiting more than three months for treatment fell by 11% in 2022, at a time most countries are experiencing big increases in the number of people waiting more than three months for treatment or to see a specialist.

The enhanced community care programme continues to develop healthcare at a more local level. The programme, which is investing €240 million in community health services, is easing pressure on hospitals and more acute settings.

Work is progressing on the establishment of six new regional healthcare areas, RHAs, and elective care centres and surgical hubs in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. We are also making high-quality healthcare more affordable for people at a time the cost-of-living crisis is affecting everyone. For example, last year we removed inpatient charges for all patients under 16, and this year we will remove them for all patients over 16.

We are also widening eligibility for the GP card, which will allow many tens of thousands more people to see their doctor without having to pay.

Additional eligibility initiatives include €10 million set aside for access to IVF treatments in Ireland for the first time; the expansion of the entitlement to free contraception to women aged 26 to 30; €5 million for oral healthcare for children up to seven years of age; and a reduction in the drugs payment scheme threshold, that is, the maximum amount any household has to pay for medicine every month, to €80.

Our health service has profound challenges. That was particularly evident during the difficult winter period but we have responded and expanded capacity dramatically in recent years. We are treating more people than ever before, with better outcomes than ever before. Ireland now has one of the longest life expectancies in the European Union. It continues to increase and is well above international averages. We also continue to see reduced mortality rates for stroke and most cancers. We also see positive trends in health-maintaining behaviours.

We will continue to advance these reforms under Sláintecare in 2023 and 2024.

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