Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The issue I raise is similar to the matter raised by Senator Conway. November is national diabetes month and Sunday was World Diabetes Day. Many buildings were illuminated in blue, including the University of Limerick. People in all stages of life, from young children to older people, get diabetes. The good news is that we can combat the effects of the disease through insulin and the risks can be reduced, especially with type 2, by making lifestyle changes, which can have a huge impact.

Symptoms include thirst, going to the toilet more and vision changes. The reason I say this is that many people do not know when they are prediabetic or potentially on the route to acquiring type 2 diabetes. They should take a test and go to their GP or pharmacist.

I am a member of the steering group for the cross-party diabetes committee in the Oireachtas with Diabetes Ireland. Recent data from the International Diabetes Federation showed that one person in ten internationally is living with diabetes, which is a life-long condition and one of the top ten leading causes of death globally. These new figures indicate that 537 million adults are living with diabetes, 541 million adults are prediabetic and the prevalence of diabetes worldwide is expected to rise to 784 million.

As Ireland does not have a national diabetes register, we do not have an accurate figure on the numbers affected. We cannot put a finger on it. During the Covid crisis, it was very difficult to identify this cohort of vulnerable people for vaccination. There were steps funded through Sláintecare but Covid came along and priorities had to be made. This is largely an information technology, IT, project. There is a public health crisis and there are many competing priorities, including simply working out how people get intensive care beds.

Professor Seán Dinneen is the clinical lead and consultant endocrinologist in University Hospital Galway, UHG. Excellent group funding has gone into research on endocrinology and diabetes specifically in Galway. We had the research infrastructure to do that and it is one of the areas in which we have become excellent.

In Scotland, which has a register, roughly 5% of the population has diabetes. This suggests that more than 266,000 people in Ireland have diabetes, of whom 234,000 have type 2 and 28,000 type 1. That is in comparison with the Scottish figures but, as I said, we do not have data so this is an estimate.

Professor Dinneen's number one priority, as national clinical lead, is to have a diabetes register. Diabetes Ireland also sought such a register in its pre-budget submission. We need this because we need to track prevalence, measure outcomes and look at the costs of care. That is crucial.

What supports are being offered to eHealth Ireland? There has been major investment in IT. I accept that the cyberattack on the HSE decimated the health service and had an even greater impact than Covid-19. People do not realise its impact.In what way will eHealth Ireland support the development of a national diabetes register under Sláintecare? How will we ensure that this is an integrated national register within primary care? In other words, GPs on the front line being able to take in information about type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. This is also connected to acute hospital settings.

I am sure it does not fall within the realm of this matter, but I have been calling for an electronic health record for a long time - even in my previous role. Such a record would streamline so many elements of what we want to develop in healthcare and would make everything so much more possible and feasible. It would be a way forward if we could connect primary healthcare with the acute settings through the national diabetes register. What can eHealth Ireland can do on that?