Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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422. To ask the Minister for Health the allocation of resources he is committing to promote and encourage disease prevention in children; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40443/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Promoting and encouraging health and wellbeing and prevention of disease in children are Government priorities. They are part of the aims expressed in Healthy Ireland, which is the cross government policy for promoting health and wellbeing in Ireland through joined up working across government and other agencies.

Child health services in the community are primarily provided by Primary Care Teams, primarily Public Health Nurses and General Practitioners supported by a number of other professionals including Speech and Language Therapists, Psychologists, Occupational Therapists and Consultant Community Paediatricians.

In many areas there are second tier services such as Early Intervention Teams, led by a Consultant Paediatrician, and which include many of the therapists working in the disciplines listed above, who work with children with more complex developmental problems or who have complex additional needs.

The Maternity and Infant Care Scheme offers free antenatal and postnatal care in Ireland, to all expectant mothers and babies. The maternity care is shared between a General Practitioner and Consultant Obstetrician. Infants are also entitled to two visits to a general practitioner (GP) after a baby is born, the first when the baby is two weeks old and the second at six weeks.