Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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2069. To ask the Minister for Health if she is concerned that within the overall medical system, insufficient priority is given to cardiovascular disease among women; if her Department or the HSE has strategies to deal with this; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19122/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government 2025 outlines this Government’s commitment to improving public health, including building on the existing National Cardiovascular Policy. Cardiovascular health is a major pillar of the health funding announced as part of Budget 2025.

In addition, this Government is committed to further developing the transformation in women’s healthcare. Underscoring our commitment to women’s health was the establishment of a Women’s Health Taskforce in September 2019. The Women’s Health Taskforce continues to prioritise different issues that women face with the overall aim of improving women’s health outcomes and experiences. Critical to the work of the Women’s Health Taskforce is identifying projects that listen to and engage with women.

€180 million, since 2020 ,of additional funding has been allocated by Government specifically towards Women’s Health initiatives. The Women’s Health Taskforce continues to prioritise different issues each year with the overall aim of improving women’s health outcomes and experiences.

The first Women’s Health Action Plan 2022-2023 featured actions which surfaced as those most prominent and recurring throughout the listening process (workstreams and listening exercises).

The Women’s Health Action Plan 2024-2025 Phase 2: An Evolution in Women’s Health was published in April 2024. This Plan builds on the previous plan and focuses on improving health outcomes for women and girls in Ireland by introducing new developments and by embedding initiatives introduced under the previous plan. This plan represents the next phase in women's health. It also focuses on new and innovative developments.

As Minister, I recently launched three Women’s Health Fund projects aimed at protecting and improving heart health in women who have, or are at risk of, heart failure. The projects are a collaboration between University College Dublin and the Heart Failure Unit at St. Michael’s Hospital in Dun Laoghaire in association with St Vincent’s Hospital. These three Heart Health projects will place a focus on women’s heart health and will develop services to meet the unique needs of women living with Heart Failure.

In addition, The Women’s Health Fund also supported ‘Her Heart Matters’, a national women’s cardiovascular health promotion campaign in 2024 run by the Irish Heart Foundation which aims to raise awareness around symptomology and gender differences in CVD. The campaign target for views of the website symptom information page was 10,000 views. The campaign far exceeded this target, totalling 44,000 views. In addition, post campaign research indicated that 48% of women who were aware of the campaign were more likely to say they would speak with their GP or healthcare professional in the next 6 months. The Women’s Health Fund will also support this year’s 2025 ‘Her Heart Matters’ campaign.

The National Review of Adult Specialist Cardiac Services (NRCS) was published on 8th April. The Review provides a detailed, evidence-driven analysis of cardiac services across the Country. The Review provides 23 recommendations around cardiac health policy, which I have accepted,

I have written to the HSE to begin developing an implementation plan by June 2025. Publication of the Review, and the development of the implementation plan will be key facilitators of our new national cardiovascular strategy as promised in the programme for government. The Review also identifies Women’s cardiovascular health as a priority area, and I look forward to this featuring in the implementation plan.