Written Answers Nos. 854-876
854. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 687 of 27 May 2025, if she can provide a copy of the Memorandum on the Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People (the Cass review); and if not, when it is expected to be published. [34235/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra855. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 687 of 27 May 2025, if she can provide a copy of the Memorandum on the Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People (the Cass review); and if not, when it is expected to be published. [34235/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
856. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 690 of 27 May 2025, for each of the unfilled staff positions of the Gender Healthcare Programme, the number of applicants there have been, and number of candidates interviewed. [34236/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
857. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 691 of 27 May 2025, the number of staff members of the National Gender Service on the Gender Healthcare Programme's clinical advisory group to date. [34237/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
858. Deputy Seán Fleming asked the Minister for Health to outline the situation regarding the fair deal scheme where the HSE will not accept a registry of deeds as opposed to a land registry title; if this can be reviewed as it is excluding some people from the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34252/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is an operational matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
859. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Health the number of WTE consultants in emergency medicine and emergency medicine registrars based at St. James's Hospital in the years of 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025, in tabular form. [34253/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, it has been referred to the Health Service Executive for attention and direct reply to the Deputy.
860. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Health the number of WTE physiotherapists, by grade, based at Leixlip health centre in the years of 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025, in tabular form. [34254/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, it has been referred to the Health Service Executive for attention and direct reply to the Deputy.
861. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Health the full-year capital and current funding required for an additional national dual diagnosis rehabilitation centre. [34255/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraDual diagnosis means a person experiences both a substance abuse problem and a mental health issue such as depression or an anxiety disorder.
Treatment options must address both issues, and as such the HSE have developed a Model of Care which recommends the development of 12 Adult Specialist Dual Diagnosis Teams nationally, 4 Adolescent Hub Teams, and a National Dual Diagnosis Rehabilitation Centre. To date investment of over €3 million has resulted in 2 Adult teams and 2 Adolescent teams being operational, with 2 further teams and additional posts funded for 2025.
With reference to the detailed information requested regarding the National Dual Diagnosis Centre, as this is an operational issue , I have referred it to the HSE for direct reply to you.
862. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Health the WTE staff, by job title, currently working at the supra-regional endometriosis centre at Tallaght University Hospital; the WTE vacancies, by job title, currently at this service; and the expected timeframe for filling each of those vacancies, in tabular form. [34256/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, it has been referred to the Health Service Executive for attention and direct reply to the Deputy.
863. Deputy Catherine Ardagh asked the Minister for Health to provide details on the services currently provided for adult patients with epilepsy at Saint James’ Hospital; the number and grade of staff that are currently attached to this service at this site; the number of current staff vacancies within this service; the number of epilepsy patients currently registered with this service; the number of patients currently awaiting first consultations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34266/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
864. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Health to provide details of the amount paid to each individual recruitment agency for the hiring of HSE staff; and the number of staff, and their grades, recruited through each agency, from 2019 to date, in tabular form. [34271/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is an operational matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly.
865. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Health the selection criteria applied to choose the team tasked with the systemic review (details supplied); if there was an open call or advertisement for the review team, and if so, the number of expressions of interest and/or applications that were received. [34272/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
866. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Health if she has been appraised of plans by the National Gender Service to ensure access to HRT for students (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34273/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
867. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Health the current structure, staffing, and clinical leadership of the National Gender Service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34274/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
868. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Health for an update on the implementation to date of Report of the Review of the Governance Arrangements and the Resources currently in place to support the HSE reimbursement and pricing decision-making process; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34287/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe recently published Programme for Government (Securing Ireland's Future) contains a suite of measures on medicines which my officials will seek to progress over the lifetime of this government.
The Government is committed to providing access to new and innovative medicines for patients. Budgets 2021 to 2024 allocated €128 million in funding towards new drugs while Budget 2025 allocated €30 million in funding for new drugs to be generated by efficiencies identified by the HSE. Up to June 2025 this has allowed the HSE to approve reimbursement for 219 new medicines of which eighty-two (82) of these were for cancer and fifty-five (55) of these were for rare diseases. The OECD reports that Ireland has the second highest rate of state coverage of pharmaceutical expenditure in Europe.
The previous Minister for Health published the Mazars Report in 2023 which found that the HSE Pricing and Reimbursement system was operating as intended and within international norms.
On foot of this review significant funding was allocated by Government for an additional 34 staff across the pricing and reimbursement system. These staff have now been hired. Given the specialised skill set required for these roles, recruitment was a complex endeavour which only reached completion in the second half of 2024. As a result, their full impact on the speed of assessment of new medicine applications will become evident in the coming months.
A further recommendation of the Mazars Review was the introduction of an application tracker by the HSE to support transparency. The initial version of the HSE’s application tracker has now launched. This will allow patients and industry alike to have a substantive overview on the pricing and reimbursement application for a medicine.
For 2025, the HSE National Service Plan will continue the tracker’s development with the introduction of indicative timelines for each step of a medicine’s assessment process.
Once a company responsible for the commercialisation of a new medicine receives marketing authorisation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), it can apply for reimbursement in the country (or countries) of its choice. The timing of company applications for new medicines reimbursement in different countries can vary for several reasons, not least the available market share in each country. Ireland, by virtue of its size and market share, may not always be prioritised by a company in the first stages of marketing a new product. The reimbursement assessment process cannot begin until an application is received.
Ireland encourages all pharmaceutical companies to apply to the HSE to have their medicines added to the reimbursement list once granted marketing authorisation by the European Medicines Agency.
869. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Health for an update on planned initiatives to deliver on the Programme of Government commitment on "to ensuring that patients have access to new innovative new medicines and treatments as quickly as possible";; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34288/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe recently published Programme for Government (Securing Ireland's Future) contains a suite of measures on medicines which my officials will seek to progress over the lifetime of this government.
The Government is committed to providing access to new and innovative medicines for patients. Budgets 2021 to 2024 allocated €128 million towards new drugs and Budget 2025 allocated €30 million in funding for new drugs to be generated by efficiencies identified by the HSE. Up to June 2025 this has allowed the HSE to approve reimbursement for 219 new medicines of which eighty-two (82) of these were for cancer and fifty-five (55) of these were for rare diseases. The OECD reports that Ireland has the second highest rate of state coverage of pharmaceutical expenditure in Europe.
The previous Minister for Health published the Mazars Report in 2023 which found that the HSE Pricing and Reimbursement system was operating as intended and within international norms.
On foot of this review significant funding was allocated by Government for an additional 34 staff across the pricing and reimbursement system. These staff have now been hired. Given the specialised skill set required for these roles, recruitment was a complex endeavour which only reached completion in the second half of 2024. As a result, their full impact on the speed of assessment of new medicine applications will become evident in the coming months.
A further recommendation of the Mazars Review was the introduction of an application tracker by the HSE to support transparency. The initial version of the HSE’s application tracker has now launched. This will allow patients and industry alike to have a substantive overview on the pricing and reimbursement application for a medicine. For 2025, the HSE National Service Plan will continue the tracker’s development with the introduction of indicative timelines for each step of a medicine’s assessment process.
Once a company responsible for the commercialisation of a new medicine receives marketing authorisation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), it can apply for reimbursement in the country (or countries) of its choice. The timing of company applications for new medicines reimbursement in different countries can vary for several reasons, not least the available market share in each country. Ireland, by virtue of its size and market share, may not always be prioritised by a company in the first stages of marketing a new product. The reimbursement assessment process cannot begin until an application is received.
Ireland encourages all pharmaceutical companies to apply to the HSE to have their medicines added to the reimbursement list once granted marketing authorisation by the European Medicines Agency.
870. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Health for an update on the implementation to date of ‘Digital for Care: A Digital Health Framework for Ireland 2024-2030’; to outline the current and capital funding provided for implementation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34289/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraImplementation of Ireland’s Digital for Care strategy is progressing at pace following its publication in May 2024. It sets out vision to enable better health outcomes through seamless, safe, secure, and connected digital health services that support both patients and providers. This vision is grounded in the principles of Sláintecare. Government has also reflected the need to both continue to work towards the full digitisation of Irish healthcare records and to support increased capital investment levels especially in health digitalisation through the review of the National Development Plan that is ongoing.
Ireland needs one digital health record for every citizen that can be accessed by health professionals across the service. The path to a one digital health record that covers the full health journey of every person living in Ireland consists of three key initiatives under Digital for Care (and the Programme for Government) proceeding concurrently and in parallel to achieve this for patients and the healthcare workforce:
The HSE Health App was successfully launched in February 2025, giving patients real choice and empowering their control over their health journey with further releases planned this year. The app, that has already won a number of technology awards, represents an important step towards making personal health information available, putting each patient at the centre of their healthcare journey. It empowers people by providing a single app to manage their digital health identity, personal health information, health and social care coordination, and access to services. It continues to evolve with more services, data and features planned in regular future releases.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) completed the procurement for the National Shared Care Record (NSCR) earlier this year. The NSCR programme has now been mobilized, with the contract for building the NSCR technology platform awarded to EY, Better and Kainos. The NSCR brings together healthcare information from various sources such as hospitals, GP practices, and Community care into a single place, making them available at the point of care and self-care in read only format. By having access to key healthcare information in one place means healthcare professionals will be able to make more informed, safer decisions and to focus more time on direct patient care while patients will be better informed and empowered to manage their own healthcare.
A phased roll-out of the national shared care record is due to commence in Q4 2025 in the South-East region with University Hospital Waterford. The system will then extend to other regions from 2026 with additional information being added over time.
Together with the HSE Health App, investing in a NSCR means unlocking fragmented data into a powerful tool for safer, coordinated patient-centred care while laying the foundation for a modern, connected and more efficient health service as we plan for a National Electronic Health Record.
The Enterprise Electronic Health Record (EHR) is intended to support integrated care across all settings. A preliminary business case for the National EHR has been developed by the HSE, setting out the case for the most ambitious transformation programme in the history of the health service. It is currently subject to the External Assurance Process (EAP) as required under the Infrastructure Guidelines. The EAP report will then be issued to the Major Projects Advisory Group (MPAG) for advice to DPENDR and Government.
A national enterprise EHR will allow healthcare staff to access a patient’s full medical history to support timely and appropriate care, with the ability to update information in real time. EHRs not only provide a complete digital health record of a patient’s health journey, recorded by healthcare professionals across all health and social care settings, they also incorporate workflow capabilities to automate the patient pathway and facilitate the implementation of standardised models of care. This means the EHR can map out the next steps in a patient’s treatment plan in the various care setting and support automatic referrals, ordering of diagnostics, lab tests, etc.
To realise the benefits of an investment in EHRs, they must be underpinned by a clear roadmap, agreed up-front interoperability and data standards, appropriate governance and a robust business case. Deploying an EHR is not just about the technology. These are significant change programmes to transform and move from a paper based to a digitised care model.
A PIN (Prior Information Notice) was published in June 2025 informing EHR suppliers about the health service's interest in a national enterprise-level EHR systems. This process is open to all potential vendors willing to engage through this process. The consultation seeks supplier input to inform the upcoming procurement, with a contract award expected by the end of 2026 and phased implementation through to 2032.
In another important step on our way to digitised patient records, in May the HSE published the tender for the delivery of a National Electronic Prescribing (NEP) service. The new fully integrated e-prescription service will enable the secure and efficient transmission and storage of electronic prescriptions and dispensations for patients. This provides a critical piece of information for digital health records and the data from this service (prescription and dispensing data) will be available through the HSE Health App and the NSCR in the future.
The 2025 capital funding allocation for Digital for Care is €190 million. This funding was allocated in alignment with commitments under the Programme for Government, specifically the need to develop the National Health App, to procure the technology underpinning the National Shared Care Record, to progress the National ePrescribing Service, to develop an AI Strategy for Health and to extend the use of Virtual Care service across all health regions.
Current funding allocated to Digital Health services across the health service increased from €270m in 2024 to €372m in 2025. This increase in funding reflects the need to deliver on Digital for Care and also reflects the inclusion of funding to enable a long-term commitment to cyber resilience in health.
871. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Health whether the HSE mental health facility at Perrot House, Coolnagarrane, Skibbereen is closing (details supplied). [34295/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.
872. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Health the number of urology day cases including ambulatory urology that were performed at Letterkenny University Hospital in 2022, 2023, and 2024, in tabular form. [34297/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
873. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Health the number of urology day cases including ambulatory urology that were performed at Sligo University Hospital in 2022, 2023 and 2024, in tabular form. [34298/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
874. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of building a surgical hub under the National Elective Ambulatory Strategy. [34304/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is an operational matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy.
875. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Health whether there are any plans to locate a minor injuries unit at Letterkenny University that is separate to the emergency department. [34306/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Health Service Executive is responsible for the management of the public healthcare estate, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly in relation to this matter.
876. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Health when a child (details supplied) in County Donegal will receive an orthopaedic appointment at Letterkenny University Hospital; the current waiting times for such appointments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34308/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual.
In relation to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
