David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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675. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide a breakdown of the areas for the €58 million allocated under e-health in budget 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31423/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Of the €58 million allocated under e-Health in Budget 2021, €25 million is ring-fenced for COVID-19 action plan measures carried forward due to the pandemic. This includes continued work on projects such as the COVID Care Tracker, (the system that supports the management of the patient pathway through the Covid-19 journey, including triage, registration, assessment, testing ,result notification, contact tracing and surveillance) the contact tracing app, on line appointment systems (to avoid congregation of patients at test facilities and healthcare settings) and systems that support the collection and reporting of Covid statistics. A further €25 million will be applied to eHealth projects and programmes including service continuity and transformation programmes and eHealth and ICT solutions supporting community and social care services. Finally, an €8 million investment will provide some of the key skills and resources required to deliver the ICT and eHealth technical components that are required to deliver interoperability between systems and services.

This important investment will progress Sláintecare reforms including integrated care and supports the eHealth strategy including important technical enablers that span across multiple systems and health facilities nationwide. It provides funding for key ICT infrastructure and the continued digitisation of health care services with improved patient experience and patient care pathways that are the result of a joined-up integrated health service.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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676. To ask the Minister for Health the funding allocated for PPE in budget 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31424/20]

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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677. To ask the Minister for Health the funding allocated for testing and tracing in budget 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31425/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 676 and 677 together.

Budget 2021 saw an extra €4 billion added to the health budget. This unprecedented additional amount of money signals our determination in government to fund an expansion of, and improvements in, our health and social care services. Included in the extra money is €650m for testing and tracing and €650m for provision of PPE. And in the coming year, a robust and comprehensive testing and tracing system will be critical to the effective functioning of our health services and the broader economy.

These additional resources will provide capacity for over 100,000 tests per week, supply PPE where needed and continue into 2021 all of the necessary Covid-19 action plan measures that have been put in place since March.

Testing and contact tracing continues to be a key component of the Government’s response to the pandemic, and to ensure we have a comprehensive, reliable and responsive testing and tracing operation, central to our public health strategy for containing and slowing the spread of COVID-19, a provision of €650m has been made in Budget 2021. This relates to all associated costs – swabbing, laboratory tests, contact tracing and relevant logistics. Some of this funding is held centrally by Government in the contingency fund.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a worldwide shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and the health service responded quickly and developed guaranteed supply lines to ensure adequate PPE was available in 2020, along with ensuring the stock levels were increased.

Recognising the unprecedented uncertainty faced by policy-makers in planning for the progression of COVID-19, a PPE Estimation Model was developed to provide for a transparent, dynamic, evidence-based estimate of required PPE for the Irish healthcare system. €650m has been provided in 2021 to meet the costs associated with maintaining appropriate levels of PPE stock to ensure all healthcare professionals have the protection they need. In addition, investment in indigenous manufacturing and supply will have wider economic benefits for the country.