Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, am delighted to be here tonight. Like the Minister and Minister of State, we also have been listening to all the concerns. There are very serious concerns here that we are committed to working on over the next few years. Investment in cancer care was one of the concerns that was brought up. I assure Members the Government is committed to improving cancer care, ensuring better prevention, maintaining improvements in cancer survival rates, and timely access to treatments. That is really important. This includes allocating ring-fenced funding to cancer services and investing in further infrastructure. Given the impact of cancer on society, we are committed to funding and implementing the national cancer strategy. Significant funding of €76 million, including the €23 million in 2025, has been invested in the national cancer strategy since 2020. I assure Members that this is a priority for us.

The other issue brought up was GPs. The Government is committed to supporting general practitioners, increasing the number of GPs, and improving access to GP services for patients. A strategy review of general practice is under way, examining issues across five areas: GP training, GP capacity, the ehealth agenda, out-of-hours reform and the supportive model for GPs. The review is led by the Department of Health in partnership with the HSE and relevant stakeholders, including the Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish College of General Practitioners. The review will identify improvements to the current system of GP care as part of the primary care focused health service. The review is to be completed early this year with a report to be presented to our Minister for consideration and the next steps. There is a commitment that we are working on this and we will come back to the House when we have more information.

I thank the Members. I am honoured and delighted to be working with the Minister for Health and the Ministers of State. All of us working together want to improve the system and make sure we have better access for people to services.

See this speech in context