David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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894. To ask the Minister for Health the services in each hospital group by hospital and community healthcare organisation, and by departments that are currently closed due to the pandemic; the timeline for resumption of each; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11706/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this is an operational matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented interruption to normal healthcare activity, both in community and acute settings. Some services have been suspended or delivered on a reduced basis during recent surges. However, it is important to state that many vital and critical services have continued through all stages of the pandemic.

The HSE published its National Service Plan on Tuesday 24^thFebruary which sets out the type and volume of health and personal services that the HSE will provide in 2021.

NSP 2021 will focus on a number of key areas including:

- Protecting and keeping the public, patients and service users safe in our Health services as they continued to be delivered in the context of COVID 19.

- Addressing and relieving the impacts on services from pauses due to COVID 19.

This significant addition investment will be applied to restart services in a COVID 19 environment, enhance or expand existing services, including enhancing service resilience and responding to demographic and other pressures, and to commence new approved service developments. The Government’s Plan “COVID-19 Resilience & Recovery, the Path Ahead”, states that over the coming weeks, subject to improvement in COVID-19 disease indicators, the HSE will seek to reintroduce scheduled clinical services in a prioritised and incremental manner based on clinically determined need.