Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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229. To ask the Minister for Health the details of the Budget 2022 package for women’s health; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50613/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Improving women’s health outcomes is a key priority for me and this Government and €31 million euro has been allocated to women’s health in Budget 2022 for new developments.

This additional funding supplements both the ongoing work of my Department in key areas for women and a specific dedicated allocation for innovative approaches to women’s health services nationwide, through the Women’s Health Taskforce ‘Women’s Health Fund’.

There are a number of key initiatives driving progress for women’s health which have been supported through Budget 2022.

This includes:

- €8.66 million additional funding in the National Maternity Strategy, further increasing targeted investment and focus in our maternity services for the second year in a row, to ensure standard, consistent models of care for the delivery of a national maternity service, with specific focus on ensuring strengthened clinical governance and leadership within services, targeting improvement in the health and wellbeing of women accessing maternity services and enhancing midwifery care for women across the three pathways of care (supported, assisted & specialised).

- An additional funding of €5million to the Women’s Health Fund. This will support delivery of the women’s health action plan, anticipated to be brought to government later this year, which will outline measures needed to tackle a wide range of issues impacting women’s health in outcomes in Ireland

- Aligning with the priorities set out in the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future, we will see €8.98 million allocated to enable the introduction of a scheme for the provision of the most effective method of contraception, free of charge and having regard to personal circumstances, for women aged 17-25.  

- A significant portion of the investment will be allocated to the continued investment in major areas of women’s health, such as gynaecological services. In 2022, we will see the establishment of a further 6 ambulatory gynaecology “see and treat” clinics, increasing the total to 20 clinics nationally, at a cost of €3.31 million; extended endometriosis services in Tallaght and Cork at a cost of €1.39 million; and further developments will be made in menopause care by establishing three new specialist menopause clinics, based in Galway, Cork and Limerick, at a cost of €0.58 million.

- A further €0.25 million will be allocated to Sexual Assault Treatment Units.

- Budget 2022 also commits €0.7 million as a first-time investment in tackling period poverty.

The remainder of the women’s health allocation will invest in existing and new initiatives, including €1.34 million towards the commencement of a structured and resourced service in the Dublin and Cork regions for perinatal genetics services and €0.54m towards the establishment of an obstetric event support team expert team to support services and sites that report pre-defined severe maternity incidents.

A further €16m in other measures to support women's health is embedded within other new measures for 2022 within the Health Vote in areas such as cancer, mental health and social inclusion budgets, bringing the overall investment in women's health to €47m in additional funding provided for 2022.

This additional investment demonstrates our continued commitment to women’s health.