Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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3077. To ask the Minister for Health if her attention has been brought to a report (details supplied); the steps she is taking to address the five key challenges identified; if she will implement the report’s recommendations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43111/25]

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Health and HSE have provided healthcare services for more than 118,000 Ukrainian refugees (BOTPs) together with a further 52,000 International Protection applicants (IPAs), who have arrived in Ireland since 2022. A total of €174m has been made available for the provision of healthcare service for refugees and migrants since 2022, including €50 million for 2025.

This funding is used to deliver a suite of healthcare services that are responsive to areas of higher demand and local health service factors, and include health assessments, catch-up immunisation clinics and additional GP sessions where local capacity challenges are identified.

Improving equity in screening is part of the National Screening Service (NSS) 5-year strategy to enable more people to choose screening. Their website provides updates on their equity work (). All our screening programmes focus on various equity projects to improve uptake overall and reduce barriers to access for screening. The equity projects are guided by the NSS Equity Framework 2023-2027 () and the . ()

• The NSS Community Champions project () has reached people in many communities, including migrants, Roma, Travellers, disabled people, homeless people, the LGBTQI+ community, refugees, people who live in deprivation, and people in addiction.
• The NSS have ()
• Improving health literacy about screening is essential to equity work in the National Screening Service. Health literacy is not simply about the ability to read and understand health information; it’s about making it easy to find, understand and use our health services and advice across the lifespan. This is one of the goals of the . (hwww.hse.ie/eng/about/who/communications/hse-communications-strategy-2023-2025.pdf)
• The NSS have produced videos on each of our screening programmes in over 20 languages:
  • (www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsQK32cdMW_w9eAT-hf5tWSjld4mdNsIo)
  • (www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsQK32cdMW_xJ9z2l2dKVXrltqACRjW8f)
  • BowelScreen (www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsQK32cdMW_zUIuiIo6nP0ejEsL_E8n0j)
  • Diabetic RetinaScreen (www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsQK32cdMW_zgz2oyOT7kcoriVASEvGKs)
• A factsheet on screening programmes () is available in 16 languages.
• The NSS have developed accessible information about our screening programmes, including easy-to-read and plain English resources, and photo and video stories.
• The NSS use plain language in our communications with our screening participants, avoiding medical jargon and using visual aids where possible to explain important messages.
• They have also developed a toolkit () to help support community workers to encourage people to take part in screening. It’s designed for local community health workers who take part in our community champions project and complete our training. The toolkit helps them plan and carry out targeted activities that make screening more accessible and more equitable for everyone
• The NSS conduct research to understand why people may not take part in screening so they can understand how to help them make an informed choice.
• NSS annual research on the knowledge, attitudes, motivators and challenges to screening informs and guides the development of our public awareness campaigns. In addition to raising awareness of screening programmes, NSS campaign highlight symptoms and encourage people to contact their GP if they are experiencing symptoms.