Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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1. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health will next meet. [46218/25]

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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2. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health will next meet. [46882/25]

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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3. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health will next meet. [46852/25]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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4. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health will next meet. [48431/25]

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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5. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health will next meet. [48524/25]

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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6. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health will next meet. [48528/25]

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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7. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health will next meet. [48903/25]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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8. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health last met. [49645/25]

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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9. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health will next meet. [50175/25]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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10. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health will next meet. [50476/25]

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 10, inclusive, together.

The Cabinet committee on health last met on 17 July and is due to meet again soon. The committee oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments in relation to health, receives detailed reports on identified policy areas and considers health reforms including Sláintecare, the reform of public health and health system preparedness for future health threats. It also receives reports in relation to programme for Government commitments in the areas of mental health and drugs policy. Sláintecare 2025+, our latest Sláintecare strategy published in May 2025, aims to forge the way forward towards accessible, affordable and high-quality healthcare for the people of Ireland when they need it and where they need it. We will deliver faster access to care. Funding of €420 million has been allocated for the waiting list action plan this year. The new regional structures within the HSE have been established, with six new health regions and 20 integrated healthcare 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. We will continue to review capacity in emergency departments, increase the number of public-only consultants in emergency medicine and ensure more senior staff are rostered in emergency departments during weekends and public holidays for better decision-making. We will continue to build our workforce through the recruitment of key roles, retention measures and additional college places for key disciplines. We will continue to invest in a healthier future, with a national physical activity framework and action plan due to be published in 2025 and a new obesity policy and action plan to be published in 2026. We are launching a new era of innovation and digital transformation in health. The national patient app has been rolled out. The national shared care record is being developed and the electronic health record will also be progressed. Additional projects which are key to the increased digitalisation of the health service include a national system for electronic prescribing and remote health monitoring and virtual care solutions.

In mental health, we will continue to build the mental health workforce and infrastructure and support 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. The forthcoming national policy on adult safeguarding for the health and social care sector, a programme for Government commitment, will set out how existing protections will be strengthened. All of these commitments build on the investment and reforms undertaken over the past number of years, including the delivery of approximately 1,330 acute beds, an increased workforce of over 29,000 whole-time equivalents since December 2019, more affordable healthcare through a reduction in the drugs payment scheme threshold to €80, the removal of hospital inpatient charges, the extension of the eligibility for free GP cards for all children under eight and to all earning no more than the median income, State-funded IVF, free contraception for women aged 17 to 35 and free access to HRT. From September 2021 to the end of August 2025, there has been an almost 56% reduction in the number of patients waiting over 12 months. The surgical hub for south Dublin opened in February this year with additional hubs becoming operational in 2026. Care is being delivered closer to home in 180 primary care centres through 96 community health networks. Twenty-seven community specialist teams for older persons and 26 community specialist teams for chronic disease are now operational and 23 community intervention teams are operational, with national coverage secured. We will continue to invest and reform, changing the way our services are delivered this year and into the future

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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The Taoiseach may be aware that there are four capital projects currently under way in Beaumont Hospital which are at different stages. They include a new emergency department, a new 95-bed ward block, a 64-bed critical care unit and an extension to radiation and oncology departments. Will the Taoiseach give an assurance to the House that these projects will be funded and will be done in a timely way? Despite the complexity of it being a live campus site with services being continued, can we be assured that sufficient supports will be put in place to allow these important extensions to a hospital which serves the north side of Dublin?

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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The Taoiseach outlined some of what the Government has been doing on health. In this budget forthcoming next week, will he clarify if there will be provision to increase the level of GP coverage around the country? I think all of us, in rural and urban areas alike, are hearing about the difficulty in accessing GP services, and about GPs who report being overworked and facing difficulties in establishing practices and in succession. GPs are retiring and are unable to recruit successors. What will be done in the budget for that? I also want to ask about the extension of free GP care to all those under 18. The Taoiseach referred to it in his opening remarks. The Labour Party in particular has been committed to ensuring that roll-out is continued and we are keen to see something in the budget for that. Finally, I return to the question of the inquiry which we welcome for children with scoliosis and spina bifida as a result of the meeting between the Tánaiste and the Minister for Health with the parents of Harvey Morrison Sherratt. I asked earlier for clarification on the publication of the relevant reports. We need a schedule for publication of the Nayagam report. It was commissioned two years ago but we still have not seen it published.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I raise the elective hospitals and surgical hubs that are being delivered across the country, with particular reference to the Cork situation. Initially, in response to parliamentary questions, we were told it was envisaged that patients would be seen by 2027, all going well. The language used in parliamentary questions of late is frustrating and now suggests patients might not be seen until 2030 in the elective hospitals around the country, including that in Cork. It is a commitment in the programme for Government. There is an envelope of €9.25 million under the national development plan up to 2030. We are disappointed that the language is now changing to say that patients will not be seen until the end of this decade. It is incredibly frustrating. There are waiting lists out your ears to get appointments for certain procedures in CUH. We have been told repeatedly that the elective hospital in Glanmire will be a gamechanger. We need to get it back on track to make sure we will not be waiting until 2030.

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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There are former residential and reformatory school survivors on hunger strike outside the gates of Leinster House as we speak. I raised this matter last week with the Minister for justice in the Dáil. This is their tenth day on hunger strike. This very serious situation has reached an impasse, with the Minister for education having advised them that their demands cannot be met. The hunger strikers assure me they will see this out to a tragic conclusion if necessary. Is there nothing we can offer them to end this tragic event? After their years of suffering in the control of a State body, they have been left with nothing. Others in similar circumstances have received some compensation. Their demands include each being issued with a HAA card to access comprehensive healthcare and full contributory State pensions to compensate for the years of forced unpaid labour they provided to the State.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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There is no family that is not impacted by mental health difficulties and challenges at some point. We know early intervention is key to preventing serious illness, particularly for young people if a mental illness is caught at a young age and the intervention services are available. Jigsaw is an important service as part of the overall supports for young people.

In Waterford, unfortunately, we do not have a Jigsaw service. Waterford is the largest city without that service. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness and I, as well as the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, have raised this issue. I am looking for an update on where that is at.

The second issue I raise is the need to deliver 24-7 cardiac services for the people of Waterford. The Minister committed to doing this, in principle at least. We have the second cath lab but, at this point in time, we do not know when the staff will be hired and what the timeline is. Will the Taoiseach outline when full 24-7 cardiac services will be in place in Waterford and the south east?

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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I welcome the announcement that there will be an inquiry into the care of spina bifida and scoliosis patients by CHI. It is good news and I give credit to Stephen and Gillian and the advocacy groups for achieving this. It is really important that it be a statutory public inquiry. Any inquiry without the power to compel people or papers will not get to the truth in relation to this. It is also important that the terms of reference are in agreement with the family of Harvey Sherratt and the advocacy groups. We have been here before where terms of reference were promised to be done in agreement with the campaign and then, at the last minute, the group found the terms of reference were not in sympathy with its views. In the case of the Women of Honour, a number of women who were part of that campaign did not agree with the terms of reference. Mention was previously made of the establishment of an office of inquiry. Given that these statutory inquiries can go on at length-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I call Deputy Emer Currie.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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-----it is important that we get to a situation where we have a permanent office of inquiry to make sure-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you, Deputy Tóibín.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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-----these inquiries can be delivered efficiently and speedily.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Approximately 10,000 people in Ireland develop shingles every year, two thirds of them over the age of 50. One in three of us who had chickenpox as children will develop shingles in our lifetime. The national immunisation advisory committee recommends five vaccines for older adults - flu, pneumococcal, Covid, shingles and RSV - yet only three are publicly funded. The shingles vaccine is available only to those who can pay for it, the cost being almost €500. This creates inequity, leaving many unprotected. Ireland is now an outlier, with 15 European countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy, already funding shingles vaccination for older and vulnerable people. Will the Taoiseach please consider adding shingles to the vaccination programme?

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I raise the serious issue of the shortage of beds in Beaumont Hospital. An example of the impact of this shortage is brought home by the very serious case of one of my constituents. I have his family's permission to raise his case with the Taoiseach because they are absolutely desperate. His name is Henry Keane from Blacksod and he was recently diagnosed with a brain tumour. Since 17 September, he has been waiting in Mayo University Hospital for a transfer to Beaumont Hospital. He is listed under a consultant in Beaumont who has accepted the transfer but Beaumont is waiting to have a bed available. There is no bed available. We can imagine what it is like to be lying in a hospital bed not knowing what the future holds, unable to get the treatment you need and not knowing when that treatment will be given. Every day, you wait and hope and, every day, nothing happens. There is no bed for you today. Is that the way we treat our most vulnerable people in 2025?

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Before the Taoiseach responds-----

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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May I come in on this group of questions, a Cheann Comhairle?

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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No, I have called nine Deputies. I will call Deputy Murphy on the next group of questions.

If the Taoiseach will allow me the liberty, I acknowledge that the Mexican ambassador, Her Excellency Carolina Zaragoza Flores, has joined us in the Gallery. The ambassador is retiring today. I take the opportunity to thank her for her sterling body of work. Her husband, José, is with her. I thank the ambassador for her kindness to me during her tenure and I wish her all the best in her retirement.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the ambassador for her work over the past number of years. We enjoyed our engagement with her and I really appreciate that.

Deputy McAuliffe raised the issue of Beaumont Hospital. There are four major projects under way there. The national development plan has allocated very substantial funding to the Department of Health and the HSE for the realisation of those projects. The key is to keep the pressure on to get them through the various stages. Health capital tends to be slow and health projects tend to be slow moving. We need to accelerate some of these projects and get them delivered. They are well under way in some respects, with planning going on and so on. I appreciate the point the Deputy made. Beaumont is a national centre for key disciplines and a very important centre.

Deputy Bacik raised the issue of access to and coverage of GP services. In terms of the budget, Estimates discussions are going on. I recall her colleague Senator McDowell saying the Government is being fiscally reckless. He thinks we are spending too much. On the other hand, Deputy Bacik and others will come along and say that we should spend more on health services. Expansion of eligibility and so on will have a cost attached to it. Public expenditure will grow significantly again this year but we have to watch the rate of growth, without question. That will limit what is possible within the health budget in the next couple of weeks and in the announcement in the budget itself. We are endeavouring to have a sustainable health budget along the lines of what we planned over the past two years, which has worked effectively enough in terms of outcomes and improvements and also in terms of fiscal sustainability for the health service. The increase in the budget has been exponential over the past number of years. In my reply, I went through all the various initiatives we have provided in terms of reducing costs for patients. Capacity is very important.

Regarding the inquiry we spoke about earlier into CHI and the publication of reports, I will talk to the Minister in respect of timelines. My understanding is that the Nayagam report will be ready before the end of the year. It needs to be published and it will be important in terms of feeding into any inquiry that will be established.

Deputies Cahill and O'Sullivan referred to the elective hospitals. I will pursue that issue. It is annoying in that going back to 2016 or 2017, there was a different Government planning a second hospital for Cork. We correctly looked at that when we came in after 2020 and we agreed on elective hospitals in Galway and Cork initially and in Dublin subsequently. Those projects have been progressing and are in planning, design and all of that, but they need to get a move on. We have a site in Galway and a site in Cork. The surgical hubs are moving as well. I have made it very clear to officials and to the HSE that these are commitments the Government has decided on and they need to be delivered and implemented. Sometimes, notwithstanding Government decisions, there can be elements in the system who think these things do not have to be delivered. It is my job to sort that out.

Deputy Cahill raised a very difficult and sad situation. I ask that we do everything we can to ask those people to come off hunger strike, which can be very damaging to people's health. There has been a long history of institutional abuse. There have been a lot of supports over the years for survivors of institutional abuse, going back even prior to the report of the Ryan commission being concluded. Redress happened for quite large numbers much in advance of any inquiries. Other initiatives were taken in terms of housing and so on. The Government will engage with the survivors but for their own health and well-being, it is important that they would come off the strike. I understand the Minister met with some of the survivors. I will follow up with her to see what can be done.

Deputy Tóibín spoke about the public inquiry into CHI. I used the words "timely" and "effective" and the Deputy made the point that he would prefer a permanent office of inquiry. He said inquiries can go on, which they can. We have had statutory public inquiries that have gone on for five or six years. I hope that will not be the case here. The Minister is endeavouring to work with the parents and advocates to see whether we can get a bespoke inquiry that will meet the needs and objectives of such an inquiry, which have to be to improve services and have a sustainable improvement in services for children with spina bifida and requiring spinal surgery.

Because of our Constitution and people's legal entitlements, very often these inquiries can evolve into adversarial-type inquiries. One concern we have, which we need to be very clear-eyed about, is the impact on current services. Presumably any inquiry would involve personnel working in the service. We have got to be very clear-eyed and ensure we design this in such a way that we maintain current services, and that we do not have any negative impact on the provision of services on an ongoing basis. A three-week timeline has been provided for work on this. I am confident that we can arrive at a conclusion to this that would be satisfactory all round.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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The Taoiseach left out my questions. This is just a reminder.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I have the reply to Deputy Cullinane somewhere.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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The Taoiseach skipped over them.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I apologise. They relate to mental health, early intervention and Jigsaw. I will talk to the Minister. There has been a significant growth in Jigsaw services across the country. I will talk to the Minister in respect of Waterford. I agree with the sentiments the Deputy has articulated. Jigsaw is a very good organisation. It has got a lot of good State support in recent years.

A decision has been taken on 24-7 cardiac services. Deputy Cullinane asked about the implementation and delivery of it. A lot of progress has been made on this agenda. I can see that all of the Deputies in Waterford work together. I appreciate that. We will keep the pressure on to get this done in a reasonable timeline.

Deputy Currie raised shingles. Again, we are now into costs. The health budget was €1.3 billion last year. It is an enormous budget. We have done a lot in recent years. I am a great believer in vaccines. They can save money too in terms of people having to be treated subsequently in the acute care system if they develop something like shingles, which can be very serious in its effect on the immune system, elderly people, and those with RSV in particular.

Deputy Conway-Walsh referred to the shortage of beds in Beaumont Hospital. I will speak to the Minister for Health. I ask the Deputy to send the details in respect of Mr. Keane to the Minister. It is shocking that he is waiting since 17 September. He obviously requires specialist care in Beaumont. We will see what can be done in that case. I take the Deputy's point. That relates to the first question I was asked by Deputy McAuliffe about projects that are under way in Beaumont to increase bed capacity and to get a greater flow of patients.