Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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776. To ask the Minister for Health the steps that his Department and or the HSE has taken to ensure all abortions carried out legally in the State are properly notified to the Minister for Health in accordance with section 20 of the Act and made publicly available in the annual report, following on from the underreported abortions in the official report issued in 2022. [7184/23]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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777. To ask the Minister for Health the way the cyber-attack and Covid-19 so severely impacted the collection of notifications for abortions in 2021 but not the requests for reimbursements related to abortions paid to GPs. [7185/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 776 and 777 together.

The Annual Report on the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018, as required under section 20 of the Act, was laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. The report covers the period from 1 January 2021 until 31 December 2021.

This was the third annual report to be published since the grounds on which termination of pregnancy is lawfully permitted were expanded in Ireland, under the legislation introduced following the result of the May 2018 referendum on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution.

The overall notifications reported to the Minister under s.20 for 2021 were substantially lower than observed in the first two annual reports. In the preparation of the 2021 Annual Report and the associated processing of the notifications received, Department officials identified the lower number of notifications received compared to 2019 and 2020. In response, the Department engaged with the HSE to make inquiries regarding this, with a view to identifying any underpinning reasons for the reduction in notifications and to assess the level of confidence in overall notification numbers.

In order to assess the issue identified, the Department took the following actions:

- A letter from the Department of Health was forwarded onto all GP termination of pregnancy service providers, reminding providers of their obligation in respect of notifications.

- Engagement was held with the National Women and Infants Health Programme and the Clinical lead for termination of pregnancy services. Following this the HSE followed up with hospitals providing termination of pregnancy services. It was noted that most hospital providers felt their numbers of terminations were lower in 2021 and it was confirmed that their notifications for 2021 had been submitted.

- Termination of Pregnancy (TOP) services are provided free of charge in line with the 2018 Act. GP provision of TOP services is predominantly via the GP contract where GPs are reimbursed via the Primary Care Reimbursement Scheme (PCRS) for the consultations undertaken with patients in respect of terminations (there are two consultations required to carry out a termination in early pregnancy). The Department has engaged with the PCRS in the HSE to cross-check the total number of TOP claims made against the number of statutory notifications received. Figures received from the HSE indicated that approximately 6,700 second consultation claims were made in 2021. Section 20 of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 provides a narrow statutory framework for the notification to the Minister of terminations of pregnancy and provides for a limited data collection, ensuring protection of the personal information and identity of people accessing termination of pregnancy services – as such cross analysis of different data sets is challenging.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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778. To ask the Minister for Health when he will publish the report of the three-year review into Ireland's abortion law in view that he has now received the report. [7186/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister for Health commenced the Review of the operation Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 in line with statutory and Government commitments. The review examined the Act of 2018 which sets out four different types of situations in which a termination of pregnancy can lawfully occur in the State. The Review will assess the effectiveness of the operation of the legislation and will be conducted in a fair and transparent manner. The final Report of the Review is expected to be submitted to the Minister for his consideration imminently.