Written Answers Nos. 225-245
225. Deputy Michael Murphy asked the Minister for Health the impact the current HSE recruitment restrictions will have on the crisis in orthodontic services for children in the South East, for ophthalmology waiting lists in South Tipperary, currently at over 2000; the current staffing vacancies in each service area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35375/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy as soon as possible.
226. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Health the reason a person (details supplied) is waiting seven-years on an appointment; if this case can be investigated; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35410/26]
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.
227. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Health to include high intensity focused ultrasound in the public healthcare system for those suffering with prostate cancer; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35412/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe NCCP published the HSE National Clinical Guideline ‘The Use of Focal Therapy in Patients with Prostate Cancer’ in April 2025. For the purpose of the guideline, focal therapy refers to high-intensity focal ultrasound (HIFU) and cryotherapy. This national clinical guideline provides evidence-based recommendations on the use of focal therapy in patients with prostate cancer by integrating the best research evidence with clinical expertise, patient values and experiences. The guideline was developed by a multi-disciplinary group including patient representatives.
This guideline addresses the use of focal therapy in patients with prostate cancer. Some studies have shown that focal therapy has better functional outcomes compared with radical treatment in patients with localised prostate cancer, however, the long term oncological outcomes are, at present, unknown.
The guideline recommends:
• ‘For patients with localised prostate cancer, focal therapy is not routinely recommended due to the lack of long-term oncological data.
• Focal therapy may only be considered for patients with localised prostate cancer on a case-by-case basis following shared decision-making with the patient.
• It is further outlined that: 'Any patients undergoing focal therapy should be enrolled in a prospective registry or participate in a clinical trial.’
228. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Health her current plans to improve prostate cancer treatment pathways to reflect international best practice; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35413/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe HSE National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) has updated national pathways and clinical guidance to align practice with current evidence and reduce variation in care. This includes the National Prostate Cancer GP Referral Guideline, which supports GPs in identifying men who should be referred to NCCP Rapid Access Prostate Clinics, with electronic referral through Healthlink and accredited GP systems.
In 2025 the HSE introduced updated National Clinical Guidelines for prostate cancer, including:
• Diagnosis and staging of patients with Prostate Cancer - January 2025
• Active surveillance for patients with prostate cancer - May 2025
• The Use of Focal Therapy in Patients with Prostate Cancer - April 2025.
In 2026, under the HSE National Service Plan, the NCCP is working to further develop and streamline the prostate cancer pathway from primary through to tertiary care with the objective of improving the time to diagnosis and treatment. Work is also under way to update two National Clinical Guidelines:
• Treatment of Patients with Intermediate Risk Prostate Cancer
• Diagnosis and Staging of Patients with Prostate Cancer
All NCCP HSE National Clinical Guidelines are developed by integrating the best current evidence, clinical expertise and patient preferences and values.
Department Officials and I will continue to work with the HSE, the NCCP and designated cancer centres to ensure that prostate cancer services are delivered in line with international best practice
229. Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil asked the Minister for Health the national implementation status of the single point of access for children's disability and mental health services; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35419/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy will be aware, it is a priority for me is that the HSE develop a Single Point of Access to create an integrated approach across Mental Health, Disability Services, and Primary Care to strengthen collaboration and deliver more consistent and equitable access for children and their families.
The approach will be to ensure that the most appropriate service (primary care, disability or mental health) takes lead responsibility for the care of each child, and facilitates input from other care services if needed. For example, where an Autistic child is accepted into the care of a Community Disability Network Team, but they also have a moderate to severe mental health difficulty, CAMHS will also provide therapeutic input to that child’s care. This is known as ‘shared care’.
A National Implementation Group is in place within the HSE, and Health Regions have established their own Regional Steering Groups responsible for developing local implementation plans, and delivering this reform to simplify access to care for children and their families. These local Implementation Plans were signed off by the HSE CEO in December last. Many areas have already been implementing the Single Point of Access approach, but I understand it is to take effect nationwide from the middle of June.
Separately, in youth mental health, we are also adopting a similar ‘No Wrong Door’ approach in connecting young people who have a mental health difficulty with the most appropriate level of care to match the young person’s need.
Referrals for CAMHS are up almost 70% since 2020, and we know many young people could be treated earlier–and more effectively-in an alternative service such as Jigsaw or where similar early intervention care options are available.
In Budget 2026, I secured funding for a range of youth mental health service improvements, including developing a digital ‘No Wrong Door’ approach for youth mental health. This is a key objective of the HSE Child and Youth Mental Health Action Plan 2025-2027, and is being developed in response to challenges faced by families navigating multiple services, including duplication of referrals, inconsistent triage processes, and fragmented communication between services.
There are currently three demonstration sites trialling this approach, with good initial outcomes, and the Child and Youth Mental Health Action Plan has committed to mainstreaming this across all youth mental health services in the six Regional Health Areas during the lifetime of the Plan.
Furthermore, the development of an electronic health record system across all community and inpatient CAMHS is another key theme within the new Child and Youth Mental Health Action Plan. This medium-term action will enable the migration of the many services that use paper-based systems to an electronic health record system, which, when complete, will streamline sharing relevant information between services to support children, young people, and their families.
This single, unified electronic health record system will improve transparency and consistency of care delivery, reduce the administrative burden for CAMHS staff, and facilitate quality improvement, clinical audit, and wider service planning. Importantly, for children and young people it will help to reduce the need for them to ‘re-tell’ their story when moving between services. The design and development of the system were progressed in 2025, with phased rollout planned over 2026.
I have referred this PQ to the HSE to reply directly to the Deputy in relation to the detailed operational information sought.
230. Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil asked the Minister for Health the way in which the national implementation group within the HSE is overseeing the rollout of the single point of access; the mechanisms in place to ensure that regional steering groups deliver the reform in a consistent manner; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35420/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy as soon as possible.
231. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Health when a decision will be made on the availability and funding of givinostat for Duchenne muscular dystrophy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35421/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe State recognises the importance of timely access to innovative medicines for patients in Ireland, particularly patients with rare diseases.
Budgets 2021-2025 allocated an additional €158 million for new drugs, which has facilitated the introduction of 263 new medicines, to date,72 of these new medicines were for rare diseases. Budget 2026 allocated €30 million of funding available for new drugs to be allocated from the overall additional €217 million in funding allocated for medicines.
The Year 1 cost of a new drug comes from the allocation for new medicines, but it should be noted that once these medicines are approved for reimbursement the full cost of providing them can reach multiples of this initial cost as their uptake increases.
Ireland is among the highest spenders on health across the EU (OECD), with the third-highest rate of State coverage of pharmaceutical expenditure in Europe.
Under the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013, the HSE has statutory responsibility for decisions on the pricing and reimbursement of medicines and medical devices. The Minister has no role in decisions on pricing and reimbursement.
There is no hierarchy of disease and pricing and reimbursement applications are considered in order of application.
To commence the pricing and reimbursement process, a pharmaceutical company must submit an application for a new medicine or a new use of an existing medicine to the HSE’s Corporate Pharmaceutical Unit. European Medicines Agency (EMA) or Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) authorisation is required for the medicine prior to submission to the HSE for reimbursement as reimbursement only applies to licensed uses (indications) of the medicine.
Applicants must continue to engage through-out the process to ensure that the necessary evidence is available for the HSE to carry out its statutory role as a decision-maker with respect to the reimbursement of new medicines, in accordance with the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013.
With respect to Givinostat, the HSE received a commercial proposal from Italfarmaco, the marketing authorisation holder for Givinostat on 08 May 2026.
This application remains under consideration with the HSE. The HSE cannot make any comment on possible outcomes from the ongoing process.
232. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health if she is aware that a survey conducted by the Psychosis Education Network of psychiatrists' views identified an ongoing lack of a national programme of comprehensive, evidence-based psychoeducation for people with experience of psychosis and their families; given the World Health Organization recommendations in this regard, the steps her Department and the HSE will take to address this gap in services; and the timeframe for implementation of any such programme. [35422/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe HSE has confirmed to my Department that has been working with the Eolas steering group to seek to make the Eolas programme available as a recovery and therapeutic offering to service users and family members who may find it supportive in their recovery process.
There was extensive discussions with existing recovery coordinators as part of this engagement, and it was agreed that Eolas would be rolled out on a phased basis through its Recovery Education Services and made available as one of the suite of recovery education offerings available to Service users, family members, staff and others. This approach was agreed by the Eolas Steering group.
The work of the HSE Mental Health Engagement and Recovery (MHER) is based on the principle of autonomy of the service user’s choice and preferences and it works to support local services in meeting the priority recovery needs of their service users in their area. The HSE does not have any power or wish to prescribe what individuals or areas should do in relation to recovery, rather it seeks to work in co-production with them to meet the priority needs identified.
The areas formerly known as Community Healthcare Organisations 5, 6 and 8 were identified as the initial implementation areas. Communication was sent to the MH Heads of Service, a training programme was provided for facilitators and Eolas manuals were produced. As has been indicated in correspondence by the Chair of the Eolas Steering Group, the uptake of the programme was limited.
In light of further expansion of specialist services and treatment programmes since the original EOLAS programme was developed, the HSE have engaged with clinical leads in this field. Some of the principles of Eolas are already incorporated into the model of delivery for Rehab & Recovery Teams and also in the Early Intervention in Psychosis National Clinical Programme with input from HSE MHER staff.
The HSE also engaged with its Recovery Education Coordinators to identify what were the challenges in rolling out the Eolas programme and they identified a number of issues:
• “The programme is too long with eight quite intense modules."
• "The programme is too prescriptive and service users feel they should just be able to take part in areas of the programme that they feel are relevant to them."
• "People were uncomfortable having to reveal their diagnosis."
• "People feel there are similar more accessible programmes available such as the Willow programme in ARCHES Recovery College CHO 6 and other Recovery Colleges and Recovery Education Services in partnership with NGOs."
The HSE are also engaging with the new Regional Health Area (RHA) structures, and the central MHER team will work with the RHAs to develop implementation plans for all MHER activity informed by a needs analysis to be conducted in each area to identify priorities. If the Eolas programme is identified as a need in an area, MHER will support the area to make the programme available to service users and families either as a whole programme, or in part, based on the need identified.
As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.
233. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health if she is aware of concerns regarding the impact of the discontinuation of the Peer Payment Register in 2019 on the involvement of service users and family facilitators in recovery-focused programmes such as EOLAS; when her Department's review of alternative models to remunerate sessional peer facilitators will be published; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35423/26]
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.
234. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Health the number of children under the school dentist scheme in primary level in Laois, that are still waiting on their first physical exam in each school year, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35446/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly.
235. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Health the measures her Department and the HSE is employing to address the current shortage in HSE employed dentists in Laois; if any vacancies been advertised for 2025/26; and if so, when can we see recruitment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35447/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly.
236. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Health the number of private dental practices currently providing services to clients under the dental treatment services scheme; and the names and locations of these dental clinics. [35448/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly.
237. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Health the number of private dental practices currently providing services to clients under the dental treatment benefit scheme in Laois and the names and locations of these practices. [35449/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly.
238. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Health for assistance in relation to appropriate supports for a child (details supplied). [35459/26]
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.
239. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health if a person (details supplied) with type 2 diabetes can be considered for the glucose monitor; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35460/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013, the HSE has statutory responsibility for decisions on the pricing and reimbursement of medicines and medical devices; therefore, the matter has been referred to the HSE for attention and direct reply to the Deputy.
240. Deputy Marie Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the cost to recruit and employ a midwife; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35466/26]
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.
241. Deputy Marie Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the cost to recruit and employ nighttime health care assistants; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35467/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy as soon as possible.
242. Deputy Marie Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the cost to the HSE to develop and run a CPD training module specifically looking at addressing bias in healthcare; the cost to develop a HSE module on HSeLanD; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35468/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy as soon as possible.
243. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Health when a person (details supplied) in County Donegal will receive a date for surgery in Beaumont Hospital; if they are on the routine or urgent waiting list; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35472/26]
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. The Minister for Health is prohibited 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.
244. Deputy John Paul O'Shea asked the Minister for Health the number of children on the waiting list for HSE orthodontic treatment in County Kerry; and the number of years they have been waiting, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35474/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy as soon as possible.
245. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Minister for Health when free GP care will be made available for all children under 12 years of age; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35490/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Programme for Government includes a commitment to 'expand free GP services to children up to at least 12 years, and keep its further extension under review'. The delivery of GP services without charges is achieved through the expansion of the GP Visit Card.
As set out in the Programme for Government, it is our intention within the life-time of this Government to expand GP care without charges to all children up to the age of at least 12 years. This will be done in a planned way, in cooperation with GPs to ensure that there is adequate capacity in place. The outcome of the Strategic Review of General Practice, which is underway, will also be a key factor in enabling the expansion of GP care without charges.
