Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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63. To ask the Minister for Health the steps he will take to end the high infant mortality rate among children in the Traveller community; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33531/16]

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Healthy Ireland is our national framework for action to improve the health and well-being of the people of Ireland. Healthy Ireland takes a whole-of-Government and whole-of-society approach to improving health and well-being and the quality of people’s lives and provides an overarching approach to addressing health inequalities among Travellers.

The Government is committed to the implementation of Ireland’s first National Maternity Strategy - Creating a Better Future Together 2016 - 2026 which sets out the vision for the future of Ireland’s maternity services. The Strategy states that the National Women & Infants Health Programme will ensure that additional supports are provided to pregnant women from vulnerable, disadvantaged groups or ethnic minorities, and take account of the family's determinants of health.

In the context of these policy frameworks, the HSE addresses the health needs of Travellers by providing some traveller specific health services, largely in primary care, in order to link Travellers to mainstream services. To this end, the Traveller Primary Health Units (THUs) have been set up throughout the country to provide primary health care to Travellers in a culturally appropriate service model which comprises a partnership of health professionals - G.P.s, dedicated Nurse Specialists and Public Health Nurses - and traveller link workers.

The THUs teams have adopted a preventative/well-being model that promotes better health by linking infants and women to preventative public health and screening programmes. Improvements have been achieved in the rate of immunisation amongst traveller infants and increased presentation for developmental checks. Preventative programmes addressing cause specific issues for respiratory illness and other chronic conditions such as cardiovascular illness and Type 2 Diabetes are ongoing. As respiratory illness is the single most common presenting illness amongst Traveller infants, health promotion education and awareness programmes, through the THUs, play an important role in addressing the lifestyle factors such as smoking that contribute to infant mortality.

The THUs also provide advice on family planning and on pre and post natal care aimed at producing better health outcomes for mothers and infants. The All Ireland Traveller Health Study found that the interval between births to mothers in the Travelling Community to be much shorter than that within the general population. With the increase in contraceptive usage and breast feeding, which is being promoted by the THU's, the interval between births is expected to widen with the resultant beneficial impact on maternal health at birth and, consequently, on infant health and weight at birth.

Finally, the Department of Justice and Equality plays an important leadership role in developing a concerted response to Traveller needs, including health needs. That Department is leading on the development of a new National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy. The Strategy aims to provide a set of specific actions that need to be taken to improve the situation for Traveller and Roma communities in Ireland. It is envisaged that the Strategy will include agreed actions in relation to improving the health of travellers.