Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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427. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the development of a national women's health action plan as committed to in the national strategy for women and girls; the number of persons in his Department working on this action plan; the dates of their meetings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42271/17]

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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The National Strategy for Women and Girls, 2017-2020 (NSWG) was published in April, 2017, and is the framework through which the Government is pursuing actions to advance the rights of women and girls, and to enable their full participation in Irish society.

Implementation is co-ordinated by the Department of Justice and Equality. The Department of Health was represented on the Strategy Committee that developed the NSWG, and is also represented on the Committee overseeing its implementation, which has met on two occasions since the NSWG launch, on 13 July and 26 September, 2017.

The Department of Health is principally involved with implementation of Objective Two of the NSWG; "Advance the Physical and Mental Health and Wellbeing of Women and Girls".

Action 2.1 of the NSWG commits to "Strengthen partnership work with the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) in identifying and implementing key actions to address the particular physical and mental health needs of women and girls in order to advance the integration of their needs into existing and emerging health strategies, policies and programmes through an action plan for women's health".

Under this Action, the Department and the HSE will work with the NWCI, and, potentially, additional relevant organisations, including others in receipt of funding from the HSE, such that an advanced partnership approach can be developed to support the implementation of existing actions and needs outlined in the NSWG. Progress on this Action will be supported by the Health and Well-being Programme within the Department and by the Health and Well-being Division within the HSE.

The Healthy Ireland Framework provides the over-arching context for progressing actions with regard to the health and well-being of women and girls. Healthy Ireland takes a whole of Government and whole of society approach to improving health and well-being, with a focus on prevention, reducing health inequalities and keeping people healthier for longer.

Within the context of Healthy Ireland, there are currently a number of issues where improvements in the health and well-being of women and girls could have significant impacts; these are set out in the NSWG.

These include improving awareness and supporting healthier choices in terms of smoking cessation, safer alcohol consumption, improving uptake of the HPV vaccine, increasing physical activity participation rates in younger women and improving rates of folic acid consumption and breastfeeding.

The Healthy Ireland approach is that many organisations have a role to play in achieving the goals of Healthy Ireland and in implementing the various strategies and plans under the Healthy Ireland aegis. Hence, the Department of Health and the HSE will continue to work in partnership with the NWCI and other relevant organisations, to support women and girls in improving their health and well-being. An initial meeting between the HSE and NWCI has been scheduled for early October, in order to progress implementation of these aims.