Results 221-240 of 11,063 for speaker:Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Primary Care Centres (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank the Deputy for allowing me to update the house on the new primary care centre in Graiguenamanagh, County Kilkenny. The need for that primary care centre was identified as part of the HSE’s overall primary care centre development programme. It is to be delivered via the HSE operational lease mechanism. As the Deputy is aware, the HSE has advertised for and identified a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: There are five public radiotherapy treatment centres with a total of 22 linear accelerators across the services. Galway has four, Cork has five and St. Luke's has 14 machines across the three sites in Dublin. The HSE also contracts radiation oncology services for public patients to centres in Waterford and Limerick and has a service-level agreement with the North West Cancer Centre in...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: There are a couple of different things. Staffing vacancies have decreased considerably, from 30% in 2024 to 14% in Dublin, 15% in Galway and, I acknowledge, 22% in Cork. CORU has changed some of the registration requirements, which has brought Ireland closer to international standards, providing access to work in Ireland for more radiation therapists generally. We have funding allocated in...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I have jobs.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Services (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank the Deputy for his ongoing concern, driven first by patient safety in Portiuncula hospital, which I greatly appreciate. It is an important focus. As the Deputy is aware, the Walker report came from a review commissioned by the then Saolta Group in 2014 following a number of serious maternity cases at Portiuncula maternity services from 2004 to 2014. It covered 18 cases and was...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Services (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I do not know how else to say it to the Deputy but HIQA has verified that all of the recommendations were implemented. Perhaps we should arrange an opportunity for the Deputy to engage with HIQA about its assessment. It is the independent regulator and HIQA advised that they were implemented. One recommendation of 154 did not work and it was moved backwards. The issues that arose in...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Services (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The Deputy is aware that an external management team, EMT, was put in place in January precisely to try to supervise, assess and make some of the improvements that are needed. There have been some infrastructural works and changes, some of which should have been done before the external management team arrived, which have now been completed, for example a four-bay maternity day assessment...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank the Deputy. As he is aware, the programme for Government will set out a review of the national development plan as a key priority. Through the NDP review, we are prioritising critical economic growth but also the health infrastructure we need to have, which the Deputy has articulated. The substantially enhanced NDP provision for the health sector of €9.25 billion will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The question is around what is capable of being delivered to absolute completion within the next five years and how we balance and manage that. I do not think it is question of right or wrong. Both the Deputy and I want to see the infrastructure delivered immediately if possible but we both live in the real world where we have to go through planning and procurement processes. There is a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: There is no barrier to them in the context of the funding side of it. The bigger issue is the planning side but we will work through it together. I had the good fortune to be in Waterford, a really excellently run hospital. I was in the CAT labs and got to see the different theatre configuration, which, of course, has been delivered. It is the case that the cardiologists have been...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: There was a recruitment process, and there you go. I stood, as I am sure the Deputy has done, and his party colleagues were there with me, outside the pretty magnificent surgical hub that is being completed there. We would very much like to see that. If anybody is going to run that well, I am confident that Waterford will do it. Those projects are being delivered and I look forward to...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank the Deputy. The Government is obviously committed to improving cancer care generally. As the Deputy is aware, a total of €105 million has been invested in the strategy since 2017, including €23 million in budget 2025. Under the national plan for radiation oncology, state-of-the-art radiation oncology centres have opened in Cork and Galway in 2019 and 2023,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Inquiries (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: Again, I agree with the Deputy. On the Dickson report I will provide a note to Deputies on this. There is a follow-up process with those families. I do not have the details to hand but I would like to provide that information to them. Deputy Cullinane is absolutely right about developing services now. An inquiry should not prohibit or preclude that. He will be aware that I have...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The Government is of course, as is everybody else, committed to improving cancer care, ensuring better prevention, maintaining improvements in cancer survival rates, and timely access to treatments. The national cancer control programme, NCCP, has a number of metrics for breast cancer services. They are consistently reviewed to guide service advancements and to make improvements. Since...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The five-year net survival rates for breast cancer grew from 71% in the 1990s to 87.5% for the 2019 to 2022 period. We are going in the right direction. The Deputy is absolutely right to highlight it. We have had more people through the system and demand is increasing year on year. More than 56,000 patients were seen in clinics in 2024, up from 50,000 in 2019. From my analysis, the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I would be very grateful for the specifics of what the Deputy is asserting. I will check that out. It is very much the opposite to what we are trying to do. Considering the number of vacancies we are desperately trying to fill, I would be very concerned about that. I would appreciate if the Deputy could help me out with more information on that. Several cancer centres have plans for...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Inquiries (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank the Deputy. He is correct. On Monday, the Tánaiste and I met with the parents of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, along with other advocates who were there to support the family. The Tánaiste and I listened carefully to what his parents said. It must have been a particularly difficult time, as all of this period has been for them, but also recognising it has been two months...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Inquiries (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: Yes, it would be my intention, irrespective of the form of investigation or inquiry, that it would be comprehensive in the way the Deputy has outlined, that it would be transparent and that it would be an inquiry that is also capable of making recommendations, as the parents and advocates have looked for. As he will be aware, in some forms of inquiry where information is presented during the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Cancer Services (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The Mater Hospital is one of eight designated cancer centres and has a range of services for cancer patients, including rapid access clinics for Lung, Prostate and Symptomatic Breast Disease, also providing surgical and medical oncology. While the Mater is meeting the national targets for its lung rapid access clinics and is improving waiting times for patients accessing systemic therapies,...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medicinal Products (2 Oct 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I wish to thank the Deputy for his question. I recognise the importance of providing the best care possible to patients with this condition. Women’s Health has been and will be a focus of mine since taking this office. We have made real progress in improving the healthcare available to women in Ireland. Veoza (Fezolinetant) is a treatment for moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms...