I was not in the Seanad.
TDs / Jennifer Carroll MacNeill
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill
Minister for Health
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
0
questions asked
Members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them
182,871
words spoken in the chamber
179,569 as a minister, 3,302 as a TD
355
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
From the Dáil chamber only: committee meetings are not in this archive.
Members of the Government answer parliamentary questions rather than ask them, so this page lists none of theirs.
Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Contributions to debates 710 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Contributions |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 19 |
| March 2025 | 40 |
| April 2025 | 20 |
| May 2025 | 52 |
| June 2025 | 52 |
| July 2025 | 44 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 7 |
| October 2025 | 59 |
| November 2025 | 56 |
| December 2025 | 11 |
| January 2026 | 57 |
| February 2026 | 9 |
| March 2026 | 51 |
| April 2026 | 45 |
| May 2026 | 11 |
| June 2026 | 14 |
| July 2026 | 60 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 12 |
| October 2026 | 91 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 567 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Dún Laoghaire 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fine Gael 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister for Health 23 January 2025 to now
Believing.
We are not opposing the motion and we are grateful for the opportunity to clarify what has been a very confused and inaccurate set of comments over the recent period. It is really important that we take the opportunity because a lot of people have been very frightened by this debate.
I note from the comments that have been made in the first 20 minutes of the debate that not one of the Deputies referenced the many co…
Did the Deputy not hear what I said?
No, it was not.
Sorry, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, this has gone too far.
It is not accurate in any sense.
That is true, but that is just not accurate.
Withdraw what?
It is a basic set of facts.
I sincerely thank Deputies from the Labour Party for raising this important issue. It is an area on which I and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, are placing a strong and deliberate focus. As I listen to Deputies from the Labour Party going back over the history of this, I recall that they did so in partnership with Fine Gael and that we stood together to introduce many important social changes. In many respects,…
All I can say is we are in the process of looking at that. I do not want to say something that is wrong. I need to double-check, and I will correct what I say if necessary, but we are very much in the process of examining the safety, application and reimbursement process for the drug. That is the direction of it. I do not have my note to hand and if I am wrong on this, I will correct the record. However, that is cert…
I move:
That Section 125A of the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999 (No. 31 of 1999) be amended, in subsection (1), to provide for the specified rate of stamp duty in respect of an insured person in respect of relevant contracts renewed or entered into on or after 1st January, 2026, and on or before 31st March, 2026, and on or after 1st April, 2026, in the manner and to the extent specified in the Act giving effect…
I thank the Deputy for the proposed amendment. The issue of reducing private income in public hospitals is one on which he and I agree. Indeed, we discussed it during the recent debate on the Estimates at the Oireachtas select committee. It is particularly pertinent given that this is the year it really kicks in. We have reached a critical mass of consultants on the public-only consultant contract and this is the yea…
Funding of €27.4 billion, as the Deputy knows, has been allocated to the health service for 2026, an increase of 6.2%. Next year a new approach is being taken to funding allocation with health budgets being devolved to the HSE regions, giving them greater autonomy to meet local needs while holding them accountable for ambitious targets and national standards.
The National Cancer Control Programme will continue to le…
We are talking about services that go beyond the cancer strategy. The Deputy correctly identified regional gaps that need to be filled by the regions, particularly where they are not meeting their targets or the same standard as other parts of the country. For example, this week, I was in Bantry, where there are two endoscopy suites, which are really important for bowel cancer and gastric cancers generally, but are u…
That is absolutely fair enough, except that this will happen under this service plan. On new money, we have additional money for new drugs, for example, in the drugs budget. We have an additional 3,300 people, which at a cost of €90,000 is all new money. They are all people who can be allocated not just to people with cancer, but people who have cancer with other things. This is the new money and the new investment. …
I thank the Deputy for raising this with me again. We should always acknowledge the extraordinary role, as the Deputy has done, of our healthcare workers and the role they played during the pandemic. They went far beyond the call of duty. Treating Covid in a front-line way at that time was an exceptional thing to do.
In recognition of that, especially from 2020, a temporary special scheme was introduced in July 2022…
I appreciate what the Deputy is saying. I will make a couple of points in response. The public health sector recognised the risk that staff faced and because of that introduced a scheme that no other sector had.
It was appropriate that it did, but it is important to state that so people have a full understanding of what was done. Eligible healthcare workers have had full pay for five years, which is important. The p…
I recognise the sufferers of long Covid and the change for 159 people who have been receiving full pay and are going onto a different scheme. While there are supports available on that scheme and its duration is also considerable, it is a change and I recognise that. My Department has championed the extension of that scheme, which enabled them to have full pay for as long as they did, on a number of occasions with th…
Waiting times for radiology and diagnostic services have been an issue for some time and the Government committed to the implementation of the Sláintecare report of 2017, which included a maximum wait time target of ten days for a diagnostic test. A key step to achieving that is fully understanding the current position. Implementation of the NTPF’s national radiology diagnostic waiting list management protocol by all…
I completely agree with the Deputy. Looking at the number of diagnostic scanners and machines in public systems, we have 550 scanners of different forms, including 62 CT scanners, 28 MRI scanners and so on, but it is about the use of them. One of the things we need to consider is how we might use the scanners available in a complementary local injury unit sitting alongside a hospital and how we can maximise the use o…
I agree with the Deputy. I am also conscious that we have increased the referral pathways for diagnostics, from physios for example. They are all good things, but they increase the number of referrals and, therefore, the waiting time. It is particularly important that the Deputy highlighted a case like that of his mother, who was referred for a scan and really needed it. There is the contrast with an emergency scan i…
The hearing care plan working group was established to develop recommendations for a holistic and sustainable model of hearing care across Ireland. The group initially had a focus on the appropriate linkage of public and private provision to meet increasing demand for services in the short term and to consider the recommendations of the WHO World Report on Hearing in the development of the national hearing care plan.…
The Deputy is right to identify the difficulty that would create. I do not have an answer at the moment as to the timeline of the public consultation, but I commit to getting that to the Deputy as soon as I can. The revised timeline for submission of a final report is quarter 1 in 2026 but that is more about the timeline for the broad work, as I understand it. Today or tomorrow, I will have a better answer for the De…