Results 21-40 of 8,047 for speaker:Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Dental Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I can update the Deputy on the orthodontic waiting lists. As of April 2025, the HSE employs 14 consultant orthodontists and 36 specialist orthodontists nationally. There are almost 35 oral healthcare vacancies at the moment which the HSE is working to fill, including three specialist orthodontist whole-time equivalents, and a further 2.22 dental nurse whole-time equivalents. There are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Dental Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I totally recognise that and I commit today to writing to the Deputy with a full answer on these points. However, as regards the waiting list initiative, there is €8.4 million for this year, provided on an ongoing basis this year to address the primary care waiting lists for children, including in orthodontics. The funding is ongoing rather than one-off and is provided to try to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: General Practitioner Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: General practice plays a vital role in our health service but we need more GPs to improve access to services in some areas. To meet that need, the programme for Government has committed to increasing the number of practising GPs through a combination of increased training places and international recruitment. In part, to attract doctors to practice as GPs here, the Government has...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Procedures (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: My practice, as much as I possibly can, is to meet people. Like Deputy Clarke, I have met parents and seen the distress. I have parents in my constituency in this situation. There is no difference between our experiences of this. I cannot believe the distress being experienced by the parents of the 71 children. We are already identifying children. Parents are being told through this...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Procedures (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I do not know the exact details of the Deputy's constituent's case but for any child now indicated for surgery, the assessment is done in a very different way from how it happened before. Any such assessment is done by a multidisciplinary team, including a doctor. It is a cross-site piece of work including a physiotherapist assessment. It is not, as had been the case, that an individual...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disease Management (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The GP chronic disease management programme commenced in 2020 and has been rolled out on a phased basis over four years to adults with either a medical card or, for GMS patients, a GP visit card. The aim of the programme is to prevent and manage chronic diseases. Since 2020, over 680,000 patients have been registered on the programme, including those who have exited the programme. Some 91%...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disease Management (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: That is right. It impacts early detection as well. As populations age - which ours is doing - the prevalence of chronic conditions, including multimorbidity, rises. Early protection through the chronic disease management programme prevents the need for more intensive hospital-based treatments. Since 2020, 51% of the new chronic disease diagnoses have been made through elements of this...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Regulatory Bodies (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: It is exceptionally important to acknowledge that our focus here is on HIQA, but HIQA did not do and did not enable what happened in the nursing homes. I want to take a moment to reflect on the fact that the provider and the individuals involved are ultimately responsible. We will also work with HIQA but let us first and foremost direct our ire at the providers of the nursing homes.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Medicinal Products (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I recognise the importance of timely access for patients to medicines, including new medicines. Supported by €128 million of funding, in the past four years the State has delivered access to 194 new medicines. Of these, 74 were for cancer and 49 were for rare diseases. Budget 2025 allocated €30 million for new medicines, to come from efficiencies to be identified by the HSE....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Medicinal Products (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I want to put a little bit of context on this. The State spent more than €3 billion in 2023 providing medicines to patients. We sometimes forget that €3 billion of the health spend goes to providing medicines. That is appropriate but it is a major budgetary consideration as well. With the early access programmes, we have to get the balance right between being able to get...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Medicinal Products (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I will do so, Deputy.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Procedures (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I agree completely with the Deputy. However, my immediate priority is to ensure that there is clinical follow-up and care for patients who have undergone pelvic osteotomy surgery in accordance with the recommendations of the Thomas audit report. I am very aware that there are families around Ireland who are receiving letters and follow-up to say that surgery was not necessary on their...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Health Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank Deputy Ward and I assure him, representatives from Donegal, the consultants and doctors in Letterkenny and the people of Donegal more broadly that I will do precisely that. I am committed to that region. That is why I visited it a number of weeks into becoming Minister for Health in order to understand for myself. I cannot look at it on a map or look at drawings. I have to be...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Health Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank Deputy Ward and I hear what he is saying about his experience of the HSE. That is important. It is also important to reflect on local hospital management and their responsibility to advance cases on behalf of the hospital. When I met Deputies from Donegal, I went through the projects that had been advanced and supported. I recognised there was, in my view, insufficient surgical...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Regulatory Bodies (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I will answer on HIQA specifically and ask the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, for his perspective as well. HIQA plays a crucial role in ensuring high-quality and safe care for patients using our health and social care services. The Government strongly supports HIQA in maintaining and strengthening its critical regulatory role. While it provides an important role, it also needs...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Schemes (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank the Deputy. The role our healthcare workers played during the pandemic cannot be overstated, particular at the very early stage of it. They went beyond the call of duty, working in front-line environments, treating Covid-19 positive patients, particularly in the early days when the control mechanisms were what they ultimately became and while the risk was extraordinarily great....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Schemes (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: There is no intention not to recognise that or to not be empathetic, which is why the scheme for full pay was there for five years. I am aware that the Minister for Social Protection has reviewed the EU recommendation in respect of the recognition of Covid-19, not long Covid, for an occupational illness. Following that review, it was determined that Covid-19 did not meet the requirements to...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Schemes (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: Again, I recognise that the findings of the Labour Court are still awaited and I respect that. I will also reiterate the terms of the sick leave scheme. Having been on full pay for five years, the healthcare workers may receive further full pay for three months, half pay for three months, temporary rehabilitative remuneration for 547 days of paid leave and the critical illness protocol that...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Health Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank the Deputy. As part of the Government’s ambulatory care policy and in advance of the new elective hospitals, the HSE is developing surgical hubs across the regions. They will play an important role in separating scheduled and unscheduled care, reducing waiting times, thereby improving access and care for patients. The programme for Government committed to delivering six...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The Deputy is right. Yesterday I was at St. James's Hospital and it and Trinity College have become one of the accredited cancer centres of the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes. There are many accredited centres but this is at a different level. It is the most prestigious award for cancer control. The Deputy is correct that we have very good services. He asked in what world is...