Written answers
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Department of Health
Health Strategies
Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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3138. To ask the Minister for Health the progress made on implementing the Women’s Health Action Plan, including the expansion of menopause clinics and endometriosis care pathways; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43380/25]
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Significant progress and investment have been made in Women’s Health in recent years. Underscoring our government’s commitment to women’s health has been an investment of over €180 million of dedicated additional funding for targeted women’s health initiatives since 2020. €38 million was allocated in Budget 2025.
This significant investment in recent years is aligned to our Government’s continued strong commitment in the Programme for Government to “further developing the transformation in women’s healthcare”.
Following on from the first Women’s Health Action Plan 2022-23, my Department published the second Women’s Health Action Plan 2024-2025 Phase 2: An Evolution in Women’s Health in April 2024. This successor plan continues to embed the initiatives of the first plan, while also introducing new areas of focus.
The attached document shows the current status of all actions committed to in the Women’s Health Action Plan 2024-2025.
In respect to the Deputy’s query on endometriosis care, this government is committed to expanding specialist services in endometriosis. The HSE’s National Women and Infants Health Programme (NWIHP) is leading on the development of the National Endometriosis Framework and on the expansion of existing endometriosis services. Investment of over €2 million in 2024 and 2025 is supporting the ongoing recruitment of staff to build on the already established Supra-regional Specialist Centres located in Tallaght University Hospital and Cork University Maternity Hospital.
Five multidisciplinary hubs for endometriosis care have been established in Limerick, Galway, Coombe, Rotunda and National Maternity Hospital. The HSE has published new Clinical Guidelines for Assessment and Management of Endometriosis in March this year. The Clinical Guidelines provide clear referral pathways and support a standardised approach and evidence-based guidance for medical practitioners and for patients accessing endometriosis services.
Specifically on menopause, 6 Specialist Menopause Clinics for complex care are operational and treating patients. The success and increased awareness of the Specialist Menopause Clinics established in Phase 1 of the Women’s Health Action Plan has led to increased level of demand. Additional funding embedded in Phase 2 will support an increase in the opening hours of the clinics to accommodate more women.
In addition to the actions contained in the Action Plan, on 1 June 2025, I launched the new Free HRT arrangement which is the next step in supporting women experiencing menopause. Announced as part of Budget 2025, the cost of HRT products in treating menopause symptoms, and the associated professional pharmacy fees, are now paid for by the State.
| - | Action | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Listen | We will continue to listen to and partner with those experiencing care and those planning and delivering services and care. | |
| 1A | The Women’s Health Taskforce remains at the core of identifying priority areas for women’s health. The Taskforce will continue to meet during 2024 and 2025 to monitor progress, drive specific priorities, listen to women and work to identify future priorities. | Ongoing |
| 1B | Women’s Health Week will continue to allow us to reflect and celebrate progress while at the same time highlighting areas needing further growth. | Complete |
| 1C | A Women’s Health Progress Report will be developed to reflect the significant achievements over recent years and inform future developments. | Complete |
| 1D | The Taskforce will take steps to initiate a further ‘radical listening’ exercise during 2025. | Progressing |
| 1E | The Taskforce will facilitate a patient voice forum to allow us to hear directly from women, including marginalised women, about their experiences of using our health services. | Complete |
| 1F | We will continue to listen by considering and taking on board results of national surveys e.g. National Maternity Experience Survey, National Maternity Bereavement Experience Survey, National Inpatient Experience Survey, National Nursing Home Experience Survey, National End of Life Survey, The Irish Health Behaviour in School aged Children (HBSC) Study 2022, The Healthy Ireland Survey, etc | Ongoing |
| 2. Invest | We will invest funding specifically ringfenced for new developments in 2024 to help us achieve our goals. We will work towards securing future investment through Budget 2025 processes. | |
| 2A | We will ensure that over €11 million additional funding that has been secured in 2024 for new developments in women’s health, will be used effectively and in particular in relation to progressing Actions 4 and 5 of this plan. | Progressing |
| 2B | We will continue to ringfence funding to promote innovative approaches to women’s health. This year we will focus on older women living well and living longer and on marginalised women. | Progressing |
| 2C | We will continue to advocate for and source funding for health initiatives that improve the outcomes and experiences for women and girls in Ireland, including through the 2025 Budgetary process. | Complete |
| 3. Deliver | We will continue to embed the initiatives that were put in place through the implementation of the Women’s Health Action Plan 2022 – 2023 and monitor the impacts of these services. | |
| 3A | We will work to embed and consolidate existing women’s health services and schemes and those currently in development | Progressing |
| 3B | We will undertake and publish an analysis of women’s health outcomes and experiences of women’s health services and initiatives to date | Complete |
| 4. Deliver | Taking a life course approach, we will continue to spotlight areas in women’s health for development. | |
| 4A | Midlife and older women: We will look at supporting initiatives targeted at improving the health outcomes and experiences of women at midlife or older (over 56 years) with a focus on cardiovascular health and bone health. | Progressing |
| 4B | Prevention & living longer: We will publish and implement a Cervical Cancer Elimination Action Plan | Progressing |
| 4B | Prevention & living longer: We will introduce venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention and care initiatives. | Progressing |
| 4C | Reproductive years: We will develop additional Community Postnatal Hubs | Progressing |
| 4C | Reproductive years: We will develop the first public National Assisted Human Reproduction Treatment Centre (see Action 5) | See 5C |
| 4D | Marginalised women: Development of drug treatment services (see Action 5). | See 5L |
| 4E | Health and well-being & supports: In alignment with the new Pathways to Well-being: National Mental Health Promotion Framework, we will explore ways to improve the mental health and well-being of women and girls. | Progressing |
| 4E | Health and well-being & supports: We will also explore supports for those undergoing cancer treatment (see action 5) | See 5J |
| 5. Deliver | We will evolve women’s health supports, services and expertise - as highlighted through the Women’s Health Taskforce’s listening exercises | |
| 5A | Endometriosis: Implementation of the National Endometriosis Framework | Progressing |
| 5A | Endometriosis: funding of new staff to build on the already established Supraregional Specialist Centres located in Tallaght University Hospital and Cork University Maternity Hospital | Progressing |
| 5A | Endometriosis: 5 multidisciplinary ‘hub’ sites located in Limerick, Galway, Coombe, Rotunda and National Maternity Hospital. | Progressing |
| 5B | Contraception: Expansion of the current Free Contraception Scheme to ages 32-35 inclusive by 2025. | Complete |
| 5C | Fertility: Development of the first National Assisted Human Reproduction Treatment Centre to deliver the public provision of In Vitro Fertilisation and other Assisted Human Reproduction treatments. | Progressing |
| 5D | National Maternity Strategy: Increasing women’s access to postnatal care and support in the community, with the addition of 4 new regional postnatal hubs. | Progressing |
| 5D | National Maternity Strategy: Continuing to implement the National Maternity Strategy actions, including further embedding of the maternity Model of Care. | Progressing |
| 5E | Screening: BreastCheck Programme Expansion to improve capacity to deal with increased population. | Under consideration |
| 5E | Screening: Diabetic Retina Screening pregnancy pathway expansion following high demand in services following Phase 1 of the action plan. | Under consideration |
| 5F | Menopause: The success and awareness of the 6 Specialist Menopause Clinics established in Phase 1 of the Women’s Health Action Plan has led to increased level of demand. Additional funding will increase opening hours of the clinics to accommodate more women. | Progressing |
| 5G | Termination of Pregnancy Services: Expand termination of pregnancy services and methods of ToP nationally to two more sites and to provide coordinator roles to existing sites. | Progressing |
| 5H | Expansion of ‘see & treat’ Ambulatory Gynaecology Clinics: Expanding the network of successful ambulatory gynaecology clinics to a total of 21. | Progressing |
| 5I | GP: Renewed GP lead for women’s health to enable continued successful collaborative work across the health service. | Complete |
| 5J | Scalp cooling: An expansion of services as a way of reducing or preventing hair loss due to chemotherapy | Progressing |
| 5K | Period Poverty: Additional period poverty measures to support marginalised women and other women at high risk. | Complete |
| 5L | Drug treatment for marginalised women: Development of gender-specific services focused primarily on addressing women with complex needs who use substances in efforts to reduce the number of drug-related deaths within this group | Progressing |
| 5M | Pharmacy: We will explore innovative initiatives in partnership with pharmacists in order to improve access to health advice and services for all women, and particularly marginalised groups. | Progressing |
| 5N | Information Sources: Provision of information sources for proactive, accessible and trusted information on women’s health and new services | Progressing |
| 5O | The Women’s Health Task Force will collaborate with Health Innovation Hub Ireland to explore opportunities presented by FemTech solutions to address the specific women’s health issues identified in this action plan. Where technology solutions could deliver impact but are not readily available, we will work with Health Innovation Hub Ireland to deliver a targeted call for FemTech innovations | Progressing |
| 6. Deliver | We will grow the evidence base for women’s health approaches in Ireland by supporting research in this area. | |
| 6A | We will work with our colleagues in the Health Research Board in producing an evidence review of research on interventions to improve women’s health outcomes to inform the future direction of research in the area of women’s health. | Progressing |
| 6B | We will engage in a Research Policy Call specifically focused on research for menstrual health; a project which emerged from the Women’s Health Taskforce. | Under consideration |
| 6C | We will work to ensure women’s health outcomes are adequately captured in the Health System Performance Assessment Framework. | Progressing |
| 6D | We will engage with partners with a view to undertaking research into access to the contraception scheme amongst marginalised groups. | Progressing |
| 6E | We will continue to connect with, share our learnings with and equally learn from our cross-border, European and International colleagues in relation to women’s health outcomes | Progressing |
| 7. Deliver | We will continue to implement our existing strategies and develop new policies that support the health of women at all life stages. | Ongoing |
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