Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government is fully committed to improving genetics services. A key ambition of the national strategy for accelerating genetics and genomic medicine in Ireland is to build an excellent national genetics service. In 2023, the Government allocated €2.7 million to support the first year of implementation of this strategy. This funding supported the creation of a national office and expansion of front-line staff. To improve national genetic testing, we must first build a strong evidence base. To date, genetic testing has been administered at local level. Information is maintained by individual hospital sites and is not disaggregated by age cohort. Therefore, these data are not currently available centrally to support decision-making. It is a priority for the national office to address this challenge. The HSE has begun development of a national genetic testing directory. This directory will provide an accurate picture of current testing. It will also allow for improved national testing capacity in the future. Patients will receive faster, more accurate results without duplication of testing efforts. To inform improvements, the HSE commissioned a study into current national lab capacity. A report examining infrastructure and workforce was submitted to the HSE this week. Findings will be shared with the strategy’s implementation steering group. This will support evidenced-based decisions on genetic testing expansion and service improvements.

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