Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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12. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [2680/25]

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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13. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will meet next. [5904/25]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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14. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [6087/25]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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15. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [5758/25]

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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16. To ask the Taoiseach when the next meeting of the Cabinet committee on health is taking place. [6171/25]

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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17. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [6308/25]

Aisling Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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18. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will meet next. [6494/25]

Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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19. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will meet next. [6718/25]

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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20. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [6984/25]

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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21. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will meet next. [7231/25]

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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22. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [7675/25]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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23. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will meet next. [7769/25]

Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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24. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [7771/25]

Catherine Ardagh (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)
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25. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [7808/25]

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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26. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [7939/25]

Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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27. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [7943/25]

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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28. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [7944/25]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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29. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [8191/25]

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 to 29, inclusive, together.

The Cabinet committee on health has been established and is due to meet soon. The Cabinet committee will oversee: implementation of programme for Government commitments on health; receive detailed reports; identify policy areas; and consider health reforms including Sláintecare, reform of the public health system and preparedness for future health threats. It will also receive reports from relating to programme for Government commitments in the areas of mental health and drugs policy.

Through the ongoing implementation of Sláintecare and sustained investment, reform and leadership, the new programme for Government commits to ensuring access to high-quality patient care, reducing waiting times, and further cutting the cost of accessing care. We will continue to build our workforce through the recruitment of key roles, retention measures and additional college places for key disciplines. Funding is secured for recruitment of 3,554 additional posts in the HSE for 2025.

We will deliver faster access to care. Our waiting list action plan 2025 was published last week with €420 million in funding allocated. We will continue to review capacity in emergency departments. We will increase the number of consultants in emergency medicine and ensure that more senior staff are rostered in emergency departments during weekends and public holidays for better decision-making. The construction of 114 new and replacement acute beds is expected to be completed in 2025. The surgical hub for south Dublin opened last week with additional hubs becoming operational later in 2025 and 2026. We will continue to invest in a healthier future with a national physical activity framework and action plan due to be published in 2025. A new obesity policy and action plan is to be published in 2026. We are launching a new era of innovation and digital transformation in health. The national patient app was launched earlier today with additional features to be added later in the year. The national shared care record will be developed throughout the year and the electronic health record will also be progressed.

Additional projects that are key to the increased digitalisation of the health service include a national system for electronic prescribing, remote health monitoring and virtual care solutions. In mental health services, we will continue to build the mental health workforce and infrastructure and support for community-based services. In older people's services, we will support people to live at home within their own communities and strengthen the nursing home sector. These commitments build on the investment and reforms undertaken over the past number of years, including delivery of approximately 1,225 acute beds, an increased workforce of almost 28,500 whole-time equivalents since 2020, more affordable health care through reductions in the drugs payment scheme to a threshold of €80, the removal of hospital inpatient charges, the extension of the eligibility for free GP cards for children under the age of eight and to all earning no more than the median income, state funded IVF, and free contraception for women aged 17 to 35.

Since the pandemic peaks, there has been a 30% reduction in the number of people waiting longer than the Sláintecare targets, equating to more than 191,000 people. Care is being delivered closer to home through a total of 179 primary care centres and 96 community specialist teams for older persons. A total of 26 community specialist teams for chronic disease are operational and 23 community intervention teams are operational with national coverage secured.

In 2025, we will continue to invest in reform, changing the way our services are delivered. The new regional structures within the HSE have been established with six new health regions and 20 integrated health areas. Health and social care services are planned and delivered around the specific needs of local populations leading to better co-ordination of care and access to services.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Because of the number of Deputies offering, 30 seconds will be allocated to each supplementary question.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. That is a very generous allocation.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Or we could just join you in prayer.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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A lot of Members are not here so we could double up on the questions.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Perhaps with a follow on.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Access to general practitioners is under pressure right across the State but particularly in some areas of very grave disadvantage, one of which is Summerhill in Dublin 1. For the past eight years the Summerhill Family Practice operated by the charity GP Care For All, has provided 2,632 people with GP services in the north inner city. That service is under threat because of Revenue rules. This matter has been brought to the attention of the Ministers for Finance, public expenditure and reform, and Health. There has to be an urgent intervention here or we will lose this service in an area where it was impossible to get general practice to operate. This has been the solution and it is imperative that the service is protected. I ask the Taoiseach to act on this matter.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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This Friday is Rare Disease Day 2025, the last day of the month. It is a topic I have mentioned to the Taoiseach over and over again. I am asking this question as the programme for Government makes a number of commitments, one being the investigation of new methods for earlier reimbursement of certain treatments including early access schemes for rare diseases. It also states that we will work more efficiently with our EU counterparts in progressing arrangements like the Beneluxa Initiative that has been under way for a number of years, albeit heretofore that arrangement has only approved three drugs in the space of four years. I am asking the Taoiseach that in this term he ensures the Government will prioritise the issue of rare diseases once and for all.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Taoiseach was caught out misleading the public, to put it kindly, on the housing completion numbers to try to win an election. Will he now admit that the crisis in our health service is also another area where he has been misleading the public about what is actually going on with regard to the lack of staffing across the health services? This has prompted all of the health workers unions to ballot overwhelmingly for industrial action. This includes nurses, midwives, porters and other grades, together with medical scientists and laboratory assistants, who are all balloting for industrial action over the pay and numbers strategy, which is a backdoor embargo on recruitment in vital areas of the health service. That is the real explanation for why we cannot address the trolley crisis, why there are waiting lists of nearly 1 million people for treatment, and why, for example, we do not have enough public health nurses now to do important developmental checks on young infants. This is all because the Government is preventing health areas and hospitals from being able to recruit the staff they need to actually meet patient need. Will the Taoiseach scrap the pay and numbers strategy so that we do not end up with strikes in this country by health workers being used to break through this embargo?

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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Last week I raised the chronic shortages of staff across the healthcare sector with the Taoiseach and clearly that is contributing hugely to delays in the system and to the numbers on trolleys. Today the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, reported 669 people on trolleys, and 9,738 so far in February alone. This is clearly not just an issue around weekend cover or workplace practices. What is the plan from Government to ensure that we have increased bed and staff capacity so that people do not have to wait on trolleys? In particular, given the chronic shortage of public health nurses and the serious impact this is having on maternal and infant health, when will the HSE be publishing the report it has commissioned which will apparently provide recommendations to improve recruitment and retention of public health nurses? The INMO has come up with some proposals and we need to see fast tracking of training for community registered nurses and more places for training provided. There is a current shortfall of 600 positions for public health nurses.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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I would like to raise with the Taoiseach one very important and particular aspect of healthcare and that is for trans people. I am sure that he, like me, is concerned about the demonisation and erasure of trans people that is going on worldwide. I am sure the Taoiseach would also agree that trans people have a human right to healthcare. The waiting list is a decade long in this State right now. It has increased by a year. We have the worst trans healthcare in the whole of Europe and it is also getting worse since the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust shutdown. Trans people are being forced to go abroad, go private, or online to access illegal hormones or, rather, the way the they are accessing them is illegal, as well as crowd funding and raising money on Facebook, Instagram and so on. The National Gender Service is the only way to access healthcare for trans people. It asks very invasive questions and does not use an informed consent model which is best practice worldwide. Will the Taoiseach please tell us what he intends to do about the situation facing trans people waiting over ten years for healthcare in this State?

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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As the Taoiseach knows, section 39 workers do incredibly important work in home care, disability care, elder care and support services in our communities. Despite their Trojan work, they receive poor levels of pay. There is also the very serious issue of a lack of sustainable funding for this sector with increased costs, such as for auto-enrolment, coming down the line.

SIPTU is now balloting its members for strike action. Last week I met with the Irish Wheelchair Association which described the impact that this would have on its members in the vital services they run. The SIPTU ballot closes tomorrow so there is no time to be lost on this. When will section 39 workers get the pay they deserve which the Taoiseach promised during the election campaign?

Aisling Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Healthcare is one of the major issues affecting the people I represent in Meath West and I would like to ensure that this Government gives an unequivocal commitment to the retention of services in Our Lady's Hospital Navan, as did the previous Government. A commitment should be given by this Government to the extension of the services and further investment in the hospital. It is the least that the people of Meath West and the hardworking staff who work in the hospital deserve.

Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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The mid west is serviced by one accident and emergency department in University Hospital Limerick, UHL. It is my view that a second accident and emergency department is needed in the mid-west region. HIQA is currently undertaking a review into the assessment of needs for a second accident and emergency department in the mid west. North Tipperary has the capacity and the population to be served by an accident and emergency department in Nenagh. When do we expect the interim report from HIQA on the assessment of need for a second accident and emergency department in the mid-west region? It was expected by the end of this month.

My second question is to ask if the Government will commit to fully implementing that report when it is published in May.

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In University Hospital Kerry, we have great staff and a great manager whose interests are in her staff and especially in the patients who use the facilities there. However, we have a crisis in the accident and emergency department where patients are waiting 24, 36, 48 hours and longer. Many of these are elderly people. A 96 bed block is required in addition to the 39 beds which are already in train there. A new maternity unit is urgently required there due to the clinical risks to both mother and baby and due to the fact that the current location of the unit is simply too far away from the theatre and this must be addressed as soon as possible.

There is also an urgent need for a permanent oncology and haematology building as the patients requiring chemotherapy are increasing year-on-year with more than 5,000 patients treated there last year. Patients would not have to travel to Cork if we could accommodate them in Kerry. This is obviously very important.

Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I want to raise the shortage of GP places. We all appreciate the severe pressure the health service is under. A good robust system of primary care is critical to alleviate pressure on hospitals, particularly at emergency departments. In Cork South-Central, the area both I and the Taoiseach represent, there is a significant shortage of GP places. Many families and individuals are finding it difficult to secure a GP. That is leading to obvious difficulties. Will the Taoiseach take this matter up with the Department of Health and the Minister as I am sure he would share my concerns on this issue?

Catherine Ardagh (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Given the significant developments outlined in the Saint James's Hospital Strategic Programme 2021–2025, including the establishment of a world-class academic health science campus and the integration of the Trinity St. James’s Cancer Institute, could the Taoiseach clarify whether the Cabinet subcommittee has prioritised these initiatives? Additionally, what specific plans are in place to support the timing and effective redevelopment of St. James Hospital, given that St. James's is Ireland's largest acute public teaching hospital treating hundreds of thousands of patients annually across multiple specialties? Capacity pressures are evident in overcrowded emergency departments with bed shortages and waiting lists which require expanded infrastructure urgently.

Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Tá a fhios agam go gcuireann an Taoiseach dóchas sna ionaid sláinte cúraim phríomhúil faoi mar a chuirim féin. The constituency I represent, like Cork South-Central and Dublin Mid West, is one which has one of the most rapidly growing populations in the country and the need for these primary care centres is paramount. I am delighted to see progress in the acquisition and, hopefully, repurposing of Adamstown and Clondalkin primary care centres. I would encourage the Taoiseach to take up the matter with the Cabinet committee on health for the need to expedite progress on the north Clondalkin primary care centre and to look at the feasibility of the primary care centre in Lucan also.

We had a welcome announcement on the Citywest and Four Districts primary care centre a few weeks ago. This is the future for care in the community, which I know is a core aim of Sláintecare. I encourage the Taoiseach to take it up with the Cabinet committee on health.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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When the Cabinet committee on health next meets, I ask that it discuss the situation regarding the national child development centre at Kildare town, which stands partially constructed but abandoned following a decision by the Department of Justice to withhold funding committed under the immigrant investor programme, IIP, system. This is run by Sensational Kids, an organisation that functions at four locations across the country, and can provide essential assessments and therapies for children.

Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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The Taoiseach will be aware that a unit with 48 single beds has opened in Mallow General Hospital. I have two questions on this. Two floors of the four-floor unit are still not open. I ask the Taoiseach to look at the feasibility of opening them. I also ask him to ask the Minister for Health, as I have, to look into the transfer of the blood transfusion service from Mallow General Hospital to Cork University Hospital as it is putting more pressure on CUH. Taking the current service away from Mallow General Hospital is also decreasing staffing levels in the hospital. It is important we keep these services in regional hospitals, such as those we have in Mallow General Hospital.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank all the Deputies who have raised issues in the context of the heath committee.

Deputy McDonald raised the issue of access to general practice and primary care services in Dublin 1. Deputy McGrath raised it in respect of Cork and Deputy Moynihan in respect of Dublin Mid-West. The outgoing Minister increased significantly the number of places for the training of GPs. My understanding was that for every GP retiring now, there will be two in training but there is an interregnum period where there are gaps in the supply of GPs. We have to be creative and innovative to make sure growing areas get provision because many people find it very difficult to access GPs. I will take these issues up with the HSE, both in the Cork context and the Dublin context.

Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, sorry Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan - there are many O'Sullivans in Cork - stated that rare disease day is on Friday. I pay tribute to Deputy O'Sullivan for his relentless focus on the issue of rare disease and innovative orphan drugs, as they are termed. Some progress, but not enough, was made on the rare diseases question. I will certainly raise the matter with the Minister, Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, and make sure it is at the centre of healthcare policy. It is a growing area and there has been progress on a number of fronts but it certainly is not enough just yet.

Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the crisis in healthcare and the pay and numbers strategy. We need to stand back and look at what has actually happened in health expenditure in the last four or five years. Expenditure has been phenomenal and quite exponential in its growth. The 2024 budget allocation was €22.8 billion but by the end of 2024, expenditure was actually €24.58 billion, which was €1.75 billion over profile.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Why do we have a staffing crisis then?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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If we go forward to the budget for 2025, the initial allocation has been set at €25.75 billion. That is an increase of approximately €1.2 billion on last year. These are huge sums of money. That is why I am surprised by strike action in that context.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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There is no staff.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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There is absolutely no moratorium on staff. There will be an increase in staff of over 3,500 whole-time equivalents in the health service. We have to also look at innovative ways of getting value for that money. People spoke earlier about scanners and so on in an art gallery and created a huge stir - rightly so - over a figure of about €100,000. We are talking about €25.5 billion here. That will go up again before the year is out and again in 2026 and 2027. There is more to be done in health - do not get me wrong - but we cannot argue that someone is cheeseparing or there is pullback in funding. There is not.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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There is on staff.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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There absolutely is not. There is an issue, either in terms of the management of all of this or getting value for money for all of this. There is a role for the Oireachtas as well because people will condemn, give out and criticise but, equally, people then also look for more money. There are a number of strands to this.

Deputy Bacik raised the shortage of public health nurses. Again, there are issues in terms of recruitment or proper follow-through and retention in the public health area.

Deputy Coppinger raised the human right to healthcare that trans people have. Again, there are different debates but to me the national gender service is the way to go and more resources are probably required there. There should be no demonisation in this situation. We need to be very clear about that in the House.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan raised the section 39 issue. It is my understanding that the Minister is facilitating its referral to the Workplace Relations Commission. The Government is anxious that be resolved in a timely manner.

Deputy Dempsey, who is seated beside me, raised Meath West, the retention of services in Navan hospital and the need for investment there. Deputy O'Meara raised the mid-west. He acknowledged that HIQA was doing a study and rather helpfully suggested to HIQA that the result should be Nenagh, I think I heard him say.

Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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That is correct.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I cannot pre-empt what HIQA will recommend. It will depend on the recommendation because I know there is a lot of demand for additionality in the mid-west more generally.

On Deputy Cahill's question, there is a great team at University Hospital Kerry. His proposals are fairly significant in terms of investment and capital. We will engage with the HSE in that respect, particularly to get what is in the pipeline delivered. That is important.

I dealt with Deputy McGrath. Deputy Catherine Ardagh raised the powerful role St. James's Hospital plays, particularly on the academic research side. It is one of our top tertiary hospitals. We will check out the needs and where we are in terms of the capital programme.

I dealt with Deputy Moynihan. On Deputy Ó Fearghaíl's point, I will have that matter examined and whether it could be sent to me in terms of the back-up there to see what else we can do and whether, if one Department is being difficult, we can find a way. If it is providing therapies and so forth, we should see what we can do to help on that one.

Deputy Kenny raised Mallow hospital. Again, there has been a lot of investment in Mallow hospital over the last number of years, to be fair. I am not sure of the background as regards the transfusion service. There could be issues there in terms of quality standards, particularly when it comes to blood, but we will certainly follow through on the opening of the two floors that are not open.