Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Collins for raising this important issue. I should say about the comment on mná na hÉireann and the likes, I am very proud of a lot of the work we have done together in this House, often on a cross-party basis, to make progress on women's reproductive health, whether around contraception, repealing the eighth amendment or a number of other important steps. I accept we have much more to do. When I was Minister for Health, we established a new task force on women's health. It has been working through ever since with quite a number of outcomes.

The Deputy is quite right that there is understandable frustration - anger, I would say - from many around the country that this measure has yet to be fully implemented. My colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is working intensively on this issue. In fact, we discussed it as recently as yesterday. She has had a number of direct meetings with pharmacists and their representative body to try to get this matter over the line. In addition, the Department and the HSE have engaged extensively with the Irish Pharmacy Union on the practical roll-out of the measure.

This measure matters for the reasons the Deputy outlined. When operational, it will cover any HRT medications and products that are reimbursable by the HSE and have been prescribed for the purpose of alleviating the symptoms of menopause. Reimbursement supports for the new HRT measure will be available to participating pharmacies from the date the measure formally commences. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and officials in the Department are actively engaged in the matter. They want to see this introduced as an absolute priority. I would ask everybody involved in this today - representative bodies, the Department, the HSE - to let us all have a bit of give and take in order to get to a point where the scheme can be activated once and for all in a way that supports our pharmacists, whose great work in communities across Ireland I acknowledge, and, crucially, fulfils the policy objective of making sure these HRT measures are funded and available to the women of Ireland.

Progress has been made on women's health over the past number of years. It became clear in the work of the women's health task force that menopause was a neglected aspect of women's health. This led to an increasing focus on providing assistance to those experiencing menopause under the women's health action plan. This has included: a GP clinical lead for women's health, established in 2021 to lead on the improvement of women's health supports in the community; development of a new menopause theory course for GPs and GP trainees via the Irish College of General Practitioners; and development of a quick reference on menopause for GP and practice nurses. The "It's My Time" campaign was launched in partnership with Sport Ireland. It was aimed at encouraging women over 40 to increase physical activity levels, which can also be helpful in managing symptoms of menopause. We saw the launch of the first ever national menopause awareness campaign. A second phase of that campaign is now in place. We have six specialist menopause clinics open for women with complex experiences of menopause requiring specialist care. There is much work we need to do in this area but I hope these are strong signs of our commitment to the area. Delivering free HRT will be the next important step.

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