Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

We fully recognise the frustration of people in the Deputy's constituency with long waiting times for certain services. Much more needs to be done, particularly to fill vacancies, as he has said, to address waiting lists and to ensure consistent, equitable and timely access. As I said, we have a child psychology waiting list initiative alongside a joint Department and HSE programmatic approach. We are committed to building capacity within primary care, particularly by recruiting additional staff numbers, promoting advanced practice roles in the community for health and social care professions and increasing - this is critical and goes to the Deputy's point - the number of college training places for health and social care professions.

Each of the six health regions and each national service has been provided with a specified number of whole-time equivalents and can replace, recruit and prioritise staff within that number. This gives them more power and control to focus resources where they are needed and informs decision-making at a local level regarding prioritisation and filling of waiting lists. There are challenges, particularly with local vacancies, which the Deputy has outlined and these are impacting on waiting times.

Each of the health regions now has its own budget. The leadership team with responsibility for local decision-making continues to work towards the Sláintecare objectives. The Government remains committed to the development of the primary and community healthcare services as outlined in the programme for Government and we will certainly take those points the Deputy has raised here in the Dáil back to the Minister.

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