Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Health the nature and outcomes of north-south cooperation in the areas of radiotherapy services, paediatric congenital cardiac services, health promotion, cancer research, food safety and suicide prevention; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54364/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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My Department is involved in ongoing North South engagement.

Radiotherapy Services Department of Health and HSE officials are working in conjunction with their counterparts in Northern Ireland on the development of new radiotherapy facilities at Altnagelvin Hospital. The new unit, which is due to open in 2016, will provide more locally accessible and timely services and improve travelling times for patients in the North Western area. Information evenings were held in Altnagelvin Hospital and Letterkenny General Hospital on the 8 and 9 October respectively to inform hospital staff, voluntary agencies and the general public about the development.

Paediatric Congenital Cardiac Services

Whilst paediatric congenital cardiac services can be provided safely in the short term in Belfast, these services will change in 2013 on the grounds of safety and sustainability. These changes are the subject of public consultation which will close on 21 December 2012. Our Ladys Children's Hospital, Crumlin, is one of 7 sites that have been identified as potential service providers for patients from Northern Ireland, and the only site which can viably provide an 'all island' solution. These services would build on the existing service provided by Crumlin to patients from Northern Ireland (thus far in 2012, a total of 23 procedures have been performed). Contacts are continuing between all of the appropriate stakeholders with a view to determining as soon as possible how best an all Island service might be established and how soon this could be realised if it is determined, through public consultation, to be the optimum solution.

Health Promotion

Co-operation on Health Promotion issues continues to progress. Following on from a successful North South Alcohol Conference in January the first meeting of the North-South Alcohol forum was held in October. The aim of the forum is to contribute to reducing alcohol related harm on the island of Ireland. The Report of the Tobacco Policy Review Group is at an advanced stage of preparation; and in the North/South context there is significant scope for sharing data and conclusions – in particular prevalence rates of tobacco use by gender; smoking related health care costs; percentage of death attributable to tobacco by gender etc. The All-island Obesity Action Forum was established in December 2008 to support the implementation of obesity policies in both jurisdictions. The Forum brings together a wide range of stakeholders from over 31 different organisations and meets twice yearly.

Cancer Research

Under the Ireland - Northern Ireland - National Cancer Institute in the US Cancer Consortium, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed last December which aims to enhance cooperation and partnership and thereby enable improved fundamental and clinical research programmes and translation of research findings into healthcare delivery. Five workstream areas have been identified under the Consortium: Capacity Building for Research; Public Health & Wellbeing/Prevention/Health Promotion (to include population-health research); Nursing; Palliative and end-of-life care; and Survivorship. Experts from each jurisdiction are working together in these workstreams to optimise the research potential in these areas.

Food Safety

The Food Safety Promotion Board performs a wide range of consumer and scientific activities aimed at increasing consumer and scientific knowledge and promoting food safety and healthy eating within disadvantaged communities in both North and South. As well as its ongoing work on the All-island Obesity Forum and on Community Food Initiatives Programmes , some of its more recent achievements include a report profiling nutritional information on Chinese takeaway food, a report on emerging food safety issues and a joint food waste campaign across both jurisdictions aimed at improving consumers awareness of the cost of food waste and increasing their understanding of the difference between "best before" and "use by" dates.

Suicide Prevention

In relation to suicide prevention, an all-island Suicide Prevention Action Plan which contains a rolling programme of actions has been agreed. Progress has been made in relation to a number of collaborative projects which include training and education (with the evaluation and roll out of the ASIST programme), updating the all-island media guidelines; the commencement of the All-Island Men’s Health Forum and the roll-out of the all island Registry of Deliberate Self Harm. The National Office for Suicide Prevention has developed self harm awareness training and an online training programme for GPs and practice based staff and these will be shared with colleagues in Northern Ireland.

I am happy that my Department and the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety( DHSSPS) can co-operate on a wide range of health issues and I look forward to this continuing in the future.