Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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175. To ask the Minister for Health the estimated full-year cost of fully funding the remaining recommendations in the national maternity strategy. [43302/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Progressing women's health continues to be a top priority for this Government. We have overseen unprecedented levels of investment in gynaecology, endometriosis services, for screening and menopause supports. We have invested in women's mental health services including perinatal mental health.

A revised implementation plan for the National Maternity Strategy was published in November 2021. The revised Plan set out all remaining activity in relation to the implementation of the Strategy within the timeframe 2022-2026. The remainder of the Strategy’s implementation was then costed at approximately €43.7m. A total of €27.7m in new development funding has been invested through the Strategy from 2016-2025. This has enabled the recruitment of over 500 full-time staff across the country.

The implementation of the strategy's Model of Care is providing more choice for women. All 19 maternity services now offer the midwife-led supported care pathway. Each maternity service now has a lactation consultant and bereavement team. Strategy funding is providing for additional home-from-home birthing suites. It is also enabling upgrades to theatres and wards. Furthermore, through Strategy funding, a maternity network has been set up within each Hospital Group to provide leadership and support. Training and education supports have been strengthened for maternity staff.

Investment of €2m announced for Budget 2025 (with a Full Year Cost of €4m in 2026) will ensure the continued implementation of the Strategy into 2025 and beyond. The priorities covered by this funding include:

• Additional Specialist Midwives to enhance women’s access to midwife-led care.
• Driving improvements in the safety of our maternity services through research, audit and new clinical guidelines.
• Recruiting more genetic counsellors and supporting staff to expand a new National Perinatal Genomics Service; evaluating, diagnosing, managing and treating anomalies before birth.
• Delivering 4 new Postnatal Hubs, to provide women with access to postnatal care in the community and away from a hospital environment. Five pilot Postnatal Hubs have already been established in 2023 in Cork, Kerry, Portiuncula, Carlow-Kilkenny, and Sligo. Additional funding of €0.45 million (€1.87 million Full Year Cost) has been provided in 2024 through the Women’s Health Taskforce to roll out Hubs to 4 sites. Investment in 2025 will bring the national network to 13 Postnatal Hubs.>

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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176. To ask the Minister for Health to detail any action outstanding in the women’s health action plan; and the cost associated with implementation of all outstanding actions, in tabular form. [43303/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Significant progress and investment have been made in the area of women’s health in recent years. Underscoring this Government’s commitment to women’s health has been the investment of dedicated additional funding of over €180 million since 2020. €38 million of this has been allocated in Budget 2025 specifically for women’s health initiatives.

The was published in March 2022, marking International Women’s Day. The Action Plan identified key actions to improve health outcomes and experiences for women in Ireland. It provided the foundation to address women’s health as a whole and helped to ensure that women’s health is viewed beyond reproductive health in order to make a real difference to women’s lives. See Appendix 1 for key achievements under this plan.

My Department are finalising a progress report for the Women’s Health Action Plan 2022-23 to be published by the end of 2024.

Building on the success of that plan, the was published in April 2024. The previous plan was seen as “a good start” in terms of a revolution in women’s healthcare. This new Action Plan is very much an evolution as it builds on initiatives proven to have had a positive impact on women’s health and wellbeing. Work on the implementation of the Women’s Health Action Plan 2024-2025 continues with some actions already achieved less than six months into its two-year lifespan, the expansion of the Free Contraception Scheme to include women up to 35 years of age being an example of this.

€12.9 million for 2025 has been specifically allocated to enable the continued implementation of the Women’s Health Action Plan 2024-2025.

Some of the actions supported by this funding includes:

• Increasing capacity of our endometriosis services and the role out of the new model of care for women with Endometriosis.
• Support for the first public National Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR) Centre to provide publicly funded publicly delivered AHR treatment.
• Expansion of screening services including Breast-Check.
• Expansion of Diabetic Retina Screening services.
• Increase in the operating hours of specialist menopause clinics.
• Improved coordination of Termination of Pregnancy services across all maternity sites.
• Additional Ambulatory Gynaecology Clinic.
• 4 more postnatal hubs. (Budget 2025 will also enable four additional hubs to establish a network of 13 in 2025.)
• Full year cost support for the Free Contraception Scheme, the expansion to 35 years.
• Full costs of the National Venous Thromboembolism Programme which focuses on pregnant women and women experiencing menopause.
• An expansion of the provision of scalp cooling for cancer patients to help prevent hair loss due to chemotherapy

• €2m for the National Maternity Strategy,
• €2m for post mastectomy products
• €0.9m for breastfeeding projects
• €20m for the provision of State-funded HRT to women experiencing symptoms of menopause.