Written Answers Nos. 1141-1160
1142. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health the number of reimbursement applications for orphan or ultra-orphan medicines remain under assessment by the HSE for more than 12 months as of May 2026. [38857/26]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1143. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health if the HSE records the number of patients who seek access to medicines through named-patient or exceptional approval mechanisms outside standard reimbursement arrangements. [38858/26]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1144. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any patient safety review, adverse incident review, or clinical governance review has examined the impact of prolonged ambulance dispatch or allocation delays on patient outcomes since 2020; and if so, to provide details. [38862/26]
View answer1146. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any review has been conducted regarding whether Ireland's current ambulance dispatch governance framework aligns with international best practice standards in comparable jurisdictions; and if so, to provide details. [38864/26]
View answer1147. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any statutory instrument, policy directive, governance framework, operational standard, or national clinical guideline formally defines acceptable maximum ambulance dispatch times in Ireland. [38865/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1144, 1146 and 1147 together.
As previously outlined to the Deputy, National Ambulance Service (NAS) key performance indicator (KPI) targets relating to emergency resource dispatch, as published in the Health Service Executive's (HSE) National Service Plan (NSP) and based on the HIQA standard, fully align to the Priority Dispatch Standard as published by the regulator for the profession, the Prehospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC).
As also outlined to the Deputy, I am informed that the Priority Despatch Standard was last reviewed in September 2025.
I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly with any further pertinent information it may have.
1145. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the National Ambulance Service operates under any internally defined escalation thresholds for excessive dispatch delay, delayed resource allocation, or prolonged queue times for emergency incidents; and if so, to provide details. [38863/26]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1148. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the Department or the HSE maintains any national dataset recording ambulance incidents where dispatch allocation exceeded a specified time threshold; and if not, whether consideration has been given to establishing such reporting mechanisms. [38866/26]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1149. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the National Ambulance Service defines any ambulance response delay duration as constituting a potential patient safety incident in and of itself; and if so, the thresholds applied. [38877/26]
View answer1150. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any ambulance delays exceeding 60 minutes resulted in incident reviews, serious incident assessments, or patient-safety escalations in 2024, 2025 or to date in 2026. [38878/26]
View answer1152. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the Department of Health has assessed whether the absence of national reporting on extreme ambulance delays limits oversight of patient safety risks. [38880/26]
View answer1153. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether HIQA has ever been requested to examine governance arrangements relating to prolonged ambulance response times. [38881/26]
View answer1154. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether ambulance delays are incorporated into any corporate, enterprise, or clinical risk registers maintained by the HSE or National Ambulance Service. [38882/26]
View answer1155. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the Department receives any routine exception reporting where NAS response performance materially deteriorates below National Service Plan KPI levels. [38883/26]
View answer1156. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any internal review has examined whether prolonged ambulance delays should constitute automatically reportable adverse incidents. [38884/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1149, 1150, 1152, 1153, 1154, 1155 and 1156 together.
As previously outlined to the Deputy, National Ambulance Service (NAS) performance against Key Performance Indicator targets included in the Health Service Executive's National Service Plan is reported on a monthly basis in line with the HSE's Performance Management Framework. The Framework is designed to ensure that delivery of all its healthcare services, including those provided by the NAS, are of the highest quality and performance is assessed against the targets and objectives in the NSP using a comprehensive Performance Engagement Model.
The HSE's Incident Management Framework, which also applies to the NAS, is designed to implement a person-centred response to any reportable safety incidents. The approach in the Incident Management Framework closely aligns the response to such events with the HSE's overarching values of care, compassion, trust and learning. A link the Framework is enclosed below for the Deputy's information, and I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond directly to the Deputy with any further information it may have.
www2.healthservice.hse.ie/organisation/nqpsd/featured-articles/incident-management-framework-and-open-disclosure-audit-tool/.
1151. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the HSE Incident Management Framework contains any specific provisions relating to prolonged ambulance response delays. [38879/26]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1157. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health if her Department maintains a central register identifying all statutory, non-statutory, intermediary-funded, and externally governed bodies receiving funding from the Department or the HSE; and if not, whether such a register will be established. [38919/26]
View answerThe Department maintains a register of all entities to which it makes payments directly. However, it does not maintain a register of entities paid by third parties, such as the HSE or other agencies.
These agencies operate and allocate grants within their remit independently and are subject to their own audit and governance arrangements over these payments. As such, there are no plans to establish a centralised register of payments made to third parties.
1158. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any formal criteria or classification methodology is used by the Department or the HSE to determine whether a publicly funded organisation is categorised as statutory, non-statutory, voluntary, intermediary-funded, or publicly controlled for governance purposes; and if so, to provide details. [38920/26]
View answerThe position on the matter raised by the Deputy in this question has been comprehensively set out in the response to PQ 34652/26 answered on 12 May 2026.
1159. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether her Department or the HSE has conducted any mapping exercise since 2020 identifying which publicly funded health-related bodies are subject to the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies, the Charities Governance Code, service-level agreements, or alternative governance frameworks; and if so, to provide details. [38921/26]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1160. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any publicly funded health-sector bodies classified by the Central Statistics Office as public bodies are legally independent companies limited by guarantee; the number identified; and the aggregate level of State funding provided to such bodies in each year since 2020. [38922/26]
View answerThe Department provides funding to three public bodies that are legally independent companies limited by guarantee. Please see the attached document which outlines the three non-statutory bodies and the funding they have received each year since 2020.
This PQ has also been referred to the HSE for direct reply.
