Is it not extraordinary? St. James's is a bigger hospital and it has ten people on trolleys today. It is in an area of just as big a difficulty. There is an onus on management to make sure that it is using the resources it has.
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
The Deputy is right on both counts. The cross-border directive scheme reimbursement has slowed down. I have put in place a deadline of Christmas to get back to where we had been. The Deputy is quite right to highlight that it had slowed down. Lipoedema is an issue raised by her and also by Deputy Maeve O'Connell. I have spoken to Dr. Colm Henry about the programme of care for that. This is an area of women's health t…
I thank Deputy Ó Fearghaíl raising this. I am very conscious of the ongoing quest that the survivors of thalidomide have had, including Finola Cassidy from my constituency. I know that they have met the Taoiseach and Tánaiste at least once, if not several times. There is a strong desire by the Government to address their very real concerns. I hope and expect that that may be resolved and that any remaining barriers o…
The Deputy is right; that is within my Department. We are in the process of developing the letter of determination for the national service plan for 2027. I will have to come back to him with a specific amount because that is not finalised. However, we have put significant additional funding into the implementation of the drug strategy this year, of which, of course, that is an important part. There is an additional …
The reaction and support for greenways are very significant. TII is doing a study to ascertain everybody's view on how locals feel when a greenway was put in. Results may be only preliminary but they are very positive, with 95% believing that greenways benefited their communities while 92% would recommend greenway development to other communities. It is very much about how the whole community benefits from an investm…
Of course, I will follow up with the National Ambulance Service to see if it has had any specific issues. The Deputy will forgive me; I am not familiar with the road, which is on the other side of the city from me. I will, of course, flag this with the Minister for Transport, who is trying to put significant long-term investment into finding alternative transport solutions for that area.
I welcome the opportunity to address the House on the independent Report on Children's Health Ireland Inquiry into Spina Bifida and Complex Scoliosis Scoping Exercise by Mr. Remy Farrell, SC. More importantly, I acknowledge the group of people who are here today in the Gallery, who have advocated for some time about complex scoliosis and spina bifida. In that context, I want to first put this conversation in the cont…
I assure the Deputy that we are already developing those transitional pathways. That is not contingent on any other external processes.
I thank the many Deputies who contributed to this important debate. I reject Deputy Tóibín's assertion that this is any sort of communications or political exercise. This is very definitely not that. I thank Deputies Cullinane, Sherlock, Rice and Murphy, in particular, for their dee…
The Deputy is quite right. Insourcing was a wrong use of public funds and created the wrong incentives. There has been significant investment in Cappagh hospital in recent years. Its budget has gone from €41 million to €63 million over the past five years. Staffing has increased by 130 in the same period. There is very significant investment but it is also true to say that as we build surgical hubs and other elective…
I propose to take Questions Nos. 86 and 90 together.
I thank Deputy Cullinane. He has put that so beautifully on behalf of his community, the hospital and the paramedics in his area. I too acknowledge the scale of the tragedy that occurred in Waterford, the deaths, the violence and the unimaginable trauma for the children, their neighbours, families nearby and the people who arrived on the scene first in most except…
I agree with every word. One of the things we want to make sure to follow up on, as we do in every case but particularly here, is to make sure those teams get all of the appropriate support they may or may not need over the next period. Of course, this is part of their job and they know this is what they may meet at a tragedy of this kind or at other incidents that happen, such as car accidents. However, this is an a…
I have spoken with the chief nursing officer about this directly. I am afraid that what the Deputy has presented is not in fact correct. I am happy to say the scheme continues to operate and is open to women attending at Cork University Maternity Hospital. The commitment is reflected in significant investment. Overall staffing has increased by 16% since December 2023. Even this year, staffing has increased by 6%. The…
There are currently 52 women registered with the scheme in Cork and a total of 114 women registered through the scheme in 2026. It is highly valued and will continue to operate. The staff uplift has been important and considerable. It is a 5.3% uplift this year on the back of a 16% uplift over the past number of years. Because of a particular group being on maternity leave at the same time, staff have been redeployed…
I have stated the level of investment that has happened, not just this year but over the past two and a half years. Those posts are in place. Again, CUH is a hospital that has recruited 233 people this year. Let us compare it with Beaumont Hospital, which has recruited considerably less, at between 50 and 80 people. I cannot recall the exact figure. It has the same level of increased presentations and does not have t…
I thank the Deputy. I acknowledge the amount of work he has done on this issue, the range of people he has met and the advocacy he and others have advanced on behalf of women with endometriosis. It is not an area I understood when I took over as Minister for Health. I am glad to have had the opportunity to learn so much more about it. I hope that in the past 12 to 13 months we have taken steps to provide a real step …
We are trying to attract specialists and that is more difficult.
I am very aware of that. Indeed, I met a doctor who travelled abroad for surgery. I was personally offended that a doctor in our hospital system would have to use her HSE salary to fund her surgery abroad. I really do accept what the Deputy is saying.
I accept that women have not been heard. That is why I brought them not once but twice into the Department of Health to tell their stories to the CEO of the HSE, the C…
Referrals increased by 60% in the same period.
I agree. To update the House, the HSE is supporting and encouraging services to get international accreditation with the British Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy. That is a first. That is new and better. I have directed that €2 million go into health research, including for endometriosis. That is the first time Irish research funding has gone directly and specifically to women's health.
As part of the EU Preside…
-----within this Dáil because of the Deputy's work, because of his party's work and because of my work. All of us together, I hope, are making some difference but I acknowledge that if a women is in pain today-----
-----that has not changed for her.
I thank the Deputy. I do not think the service is overstaffed, by the way. I have never said that. I am actually advocating more staff, including in this year's budget and last year's budget. In 2025, we came in on the money recruiting. In 2026, we were recruiting and not coming in on the money. Therefore, it is a pattern of behaviour as opposed to any sort of perceptions about the level of the staffing. I am advocat…
What I said is that the forecast is based on demographic growth of 2.1% but everything within that is going to be different. The emergency department presentations and the inpatient case activity are all different. They are at different levels.
I do not know how else to say it. The assumption is that it is 2.1%. This is very important. There is no correlation between increased demand and the amount of money. Let me give two examples. The mid-west recorded a 9.6% increase in emergency department admissions, higher than the national average and the highest increase nationally, yet it reported a pay deficit of 1.4% growth at the end of August, the lowest defic…
I do not know how else to say this. The demand is forecast, essentially. We look at demographic growth but the presentations and how that works are very different. For example, there was a particular presentation of over-75s in the first three months of this year, and that arose more quickly than expected. We base it on demographic growth but the presentations are very different. There is a different presentation for…