Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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379. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 523 of 20 February 2024, his plans for the future location of the main laboratory for genetic testing in Ireland, which is currently housed at CHI Crumlin; the reason this is not being accommodated in the new children's hospital; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26794/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Government and I are fully committed to developing a robust patient and family centred genetics and genomics service in Ireland and increasing genomic laboratory capabilities for the betterment of patient diagnostics and care.

In 2016, the National Genetic and Genomic Medicine Network strategy group provided a report to the HSE. This report outlined the future of genetic and genomic services in Ireland. It recommended that a national approach to clinical and laboratory genetics and genomics should be developed. It also highlighted that the existing laboratory in CHI Crumlin was not designed to deliver a national function in this regard.

Following on from this report, the National Strategy for Accelerating Genetic and Genomic in Ireland was launched in 2022. In line with Sláintecare, the strategy outlines a clear approach to developing sustainable patient and family centred genetics and genomics service.

An important element of achieving this is increasing genomic laboratory capabilities in Ireland. Strengthening infrastructure to drive advances in genetics and genomics is a key objective of the strategy’s focus. This will lead to the development of a centralised national centre for genomic medicine services including genomic testing and bioinformatics.

The development of this national centre will increase genomic testing capacities in Ireland, ultimately reducing waiting times and improving patient outcomes in areas such as rare diseases and cancer.

As the current focus of work is on assessment of existing capacity and need, a decision on the location of this new national centre has not yet been made. In the meantime, and while the 2022 Strategy is being implemented, genetic and genomic testing will continue to be carried out in existing sites as appropriate.

In addition to a centralised, national approach to genomic testing, a number of important projects are underway to improve genetics services in Ireland. This year, the HSE National Genetics and Genomics Office (NGGO) will focus on the identification of current test providers (both national and international) used to meet the genetic and genomic testing needs of Irish patients. The information gathered through this process and a clinical operating model (which is currently being developed) will enable the future development of genetic and genomic laboratory capacity.

Another priority deliverable for 2024 is the development of a National Genomic Test Directory for Rare and Inherited Diseases. The NGGO have engaged with potential service users to understand the clinical need, to ensure this test directory appropriately meets that need. This directory will be a key enabling document used to inform the development of new genomic laboratory capacity.

Beyond 2024, the Government and I remain committed to continue planning for the development of the national centre for genomics services, including consideration of appropriate locations to host this centre.