Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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818. To ask the Minister for Health if a national strategy for haemochromatosis is currently under consideration, where everyone has equal access to testing, diagnosis, treatment and quality of care, regardless of where they live in Ireland or their financial circumstances; if consideration has been given to the development of a population screening programme for haemochromatosis in primary and hospital care settings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24754/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I am fully committed to supporting our population screening programmes which are a valuable part of our health service, enabling early treatment and care for many people, and improving the overall health of our population.

It is important to be aware that any decisions about changes to our national screening programmes, such as screening for Haemochromatosis, will be made on the advice of our National Screening Advisory Committee (NSAC). This independent expert group considers and assesses evidence in a robust and transparent manner, and against internationally accepted criteria. It is important we have rigorous processes in place to ensure our screening programmes are effective, quality assured and operating to safe standards, and that the benefits of screening outweigh the harms.

The Committee's Annual Call 2022 for proposals for new screening programmes or changes to our existing programmes, received a total of 19 submissions, which included a submission on Genetic Haemochromatosis.

Genetic Haemochromatosis, along with a number of other conditions, is currently under consideration by NSAC. The Committee has published its Work Programme on its website, setting out the status of proposals currently being considered.

As the first part of your question relates to implementation of the Models of Care for Hereditary Haemochromatosis and Therapeutic Phlebotomy for patients with Hereditary Haemochromatosis, I have referred this part of the question to the HSE for direct reply.