Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

The Government commits to opening surgical hubs and assessing the business case for a surgical hub in the north west. The HSE is developing that and I have yet to receive it. The factors the HSE will take into account include the population distribution. I had a very good visit to Letterkenny hospital last week and note its funding has increased by over 54% in recent years. The staff number has in…

I am conscious that the Minister of State, Deputy Murnane O’Connor, has responsibility for this. I might ask her to come back to the Deputy directly on the details on this. I know she is very interested in this and has a very strong focus on consultation. I might ask her to come back to the Deputy with her ideas.

I have been told to expect that report from HIQA in May. I have no further details beyond that. We always debate matters in the Dáil, so there is no difficulty with that. I would point out two things. The Deputy is right about Limerick. It is under particular pressure. The opening of the 96-bed block is absolutely essential to alleviate that pressure. Other than that, there are sites of considerab…

We are here today because the HIQA review has laid bare significant failures at Children’s Health Ireland, failures that I believe have put children at risk of harm. Children who deserved the very highest standards of care were failed in process, duty and responsibility. We must confront that failure openly, honestly and with a determination to make sure it does not happen again and to regain trus…

Forgive me. My focus is on the opening of the hospital, the detail of the work of improving capacity in spinal surgeries, making sure that the posts we have funded are recruited, making sure that communications are substantially improved that people are not let down in that way, and making sure that people can have confidence. Of course, I will come to the House at the earliest opportunity that …

They do not.

I thank Deputies for all of their contributions, both in this debate tonight and in different ways as we work together. We are having this debate as a direct result of the HIQA report, which dealt with three cases of the incorrect insertion of non-surgical grade materials into the bodies of young children. I was asked this evening whether I had apologised to the families; it was the first line of…

-----or oversight that it might otherwise have. For example, of the 12 members, four are nominated by the Minister, four are nominated by the board itself and approved by the Minister and the chairperson is chosen by the members of the board. Therefore, it is a bit different. My concern is that, whatever happens 16 or 18 months from now, we have a functional governance structure that enables us to…

This is completely wrong.

Is this deliberate?

It has not been published.

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "recognises that: — Children's Health Ireland (CHI) was made aware through the protected disclosure process of a concern relating to the threshold criteria being used for surgical intervention in relation to development dysplasia of the hip (DDH) September 2023; — the concern related to different ind…

I thank Deputy Cullinane. I am very happy to look at any case. Deputy Cullinane appreciates I have not formally received the report yet but I am absolutely open to any case being brought to me. I would greatly appreciate if Deputies throughout the House might do so in the earliest course. Separately on the board of CHI, there is a statutory structure around it. I note the chairperson stepped down…

As the House is aware, the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act was signed into law in July 2024. Significant amending work is necessary for that and formal drafting of that Bill, which is largely concerned with the outstanding issues of parentage and citizenship, as well as procedures undertaken abroad, is under way and is a priority area. I am hoping this will be published in June.

I would appreciate it if the Deputy would give me the details of that. We are constantly recruiting in the health service. We have another 6,250 people to recruit just this year and that is after retirements. It is very much against the grain to hear this in Dáil Éireann, considering how much we have invested and how much we continue to invest. Could the Deputy give me the details? I will be happy…

The commitment in the budget last year was to provide for HRT medication to be free. That has been available to be implemented since January. The Deputy is correct to say that there had not been enough dialogue with pharmacists in the context of the implementation of the scheme. I met the Irish Pharmacy Union twice - in early February and again last week - in order to try to resolve the issues rel…

I updated the House last week to the effect that I had received the interim report. It has since been published. The report outlines the process that HIQA is going through, including in the context of the submissions that have been made and that are being collated. In the report, HIQA indicates that it will publish the final report in May. We will need to see what that is going to say.

The Deputy is correct that the programme for Government contains a commitment in respect of the establishment of six surgical hubs. We are examining a business case for an additional hub in the north west. I am going through the detail of that. It is extremely important to recognise how additive a surgical hub can be and the support it can provide to a local acute hospital to try to remove some sc…

As the Deputy is aware, there needs to be an amendment to that legislation. There is considerable engagement between the Department of children, the Department of Justice and my Department on it and there has been intensive work. It is on the priority list for the spring legislative programme. I expect that amending legislation to be published in June. My own target is that it will be enacted by D…

Really?

That word.

No, you used the word "lies".

I have two points to add to the comments made by my Government colleagues. The first is that we are temporary custodians of the processes and standards that were built before our time in the House. The Ceann Comhairle is a constitutional officeholder who was elected by the Dáil. It is disproportionate to have a motion of confidence if the only issue is the way in which she took a vote. She commenc…

I just want to observe with regard to UHL that over the bank holiday weekend in February, 140 people were waiting on trolleys but this weekend there were 79. That is a 56% reduction and it should be like that all the time. There is huge capacity going into Limerick in terms of the 96-bed block and a second one. There will be 582 new beds delivered. An interim report by HIQA was brought to me and I…

The national review of adult specialist cardiac services is finalised. The review provides a detailed, evidence-driven analysis of cardiac services across the country. A wide range of stakeholders - clinical, patient and public - were consulted as part of the review. The review provides recommendations around cardiac health policy, specifically: patient-centred care integrated with Sláintecare; in…