Parliamentary questions

953. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health the way unpresented homecare hours are dealt with; the number that are short homecare hours; if the company is paid on homecare hours allotted by HSE, or actual hours supplied; and, if hours drop for the client, if this is reflected in the payment by the state. [3911/26]

954. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Health the number of vacancies for public health nurses in both Galway and Roscommon, by county, in tabular form; the plans to address this shortage; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3915/26]

955. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Health the number of children whose developmental checks were not received on time in Galway and Roscommon, by county, for the past five years, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3916/26]

956. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Health the steps taken to date to implement the guidance issued by an organisation (details supplied) on transparency of medicines pricing and pharmacy service fees, which took effect from 1 December 2025; and to provide an update on early compliance levels, including any monitoring data available to her Department; and if she will make a statement …

957. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Health the enforcement and compliance framework in place to ensure that pharmacies display, in a conspicuous location, the required information on professional service fees and the range of dispensing fees; the respective roles of the PSI and her Department; the actions that may follow where a pharmacy is found not to be compliant, including any san…

958. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Health the commencement date and operational readiness of the requirement that, from January 2026, patients receive a detailed receipt itemising the medicine cost, the dispensing fee, where applicable, and any other professional service fees; the technical or system changes which were required to deliver this across the sector; to confirm the minimu…

959. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Health the number of complaints or concerns received by her Department, the HSE or the PSI since 1 December 2025 relating to non-display of fees, unclear pricing or refusal to provide an itemised receipt, by month, by category where available; the way in which patients can escalate concerns where they believe the guidance is not being followed; and …

960. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Health whether her Department plans to review the impact of the PSI transparency guidance and the receipt requirement during 2026, including publishing compliance rates and any changes in average dispensing fees for private patients; whether she plans to place any elements of the guidance on a statutory footing through primary or secondary legislati…

961. Deputy Robert O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Health the basis on which children are scheduled for speech and language therapy assessments in CHO 9, including whether referrals are processed strictly in order of date received or subject to clinical and-or age-based prioritisation; the criteria used in such prioritisation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3938/26]

962. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Health to provide a list of vacancies at a service (details supplied); how long each vacancy has existed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3940/26]

963. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Health the steps the HSE is taking to restore and strengthen level 2 palliative and end-of-life nursing services in County Louth, particularly outside normal working hours, given long-standing concerns about the depletion of this service in the county. [3944/26]

964. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Health the assessment that has been carried out of the impact that limited out-of-hours community nursing provision in County Louth has on emergency department attendances and hospital deaths at end of life. [3945/26]

965. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Health the way in which the HSE intends to respond, in the context of County Louth, to the finding by an organisation (details supplied) that the greatest gaps in end-of-life care nationally are in level 2 community-based services rather than specialist services. [3946/26]

966. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Health whether she will provide interim funding or commissioning arrangements to ensure that people in County Louth can access timely, nurse-led end-of-life care in the community, pending the development of longer term service plans. [3947/26]

967. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Health the rationale for refusing to allow foster parents (details supplied) pay privately for speech and language therapy for their foster child, who has already built a relationship with an existing speech and language therapist, and acknowledging that change is particularly traumatic for the child; if this particular case can be investigat…

968. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Health when the cold cap/scalp cooling machine in CUH was installed; when it was last used; and to outline the timeline for it being used again. [3957/26]

969. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of claims relating to the development of the new children's hospital which have been referred to the courts, by court; the date of referral; the disputed value of each claim as per the contractor; and the summary details of each claim, in tabular form. [3969/26]

970. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the waiting lists and average waiting times for each type of cancer treatment, by cancer centre; and the compliance rate with key performance indictors and standards in this area, in tabular form. [3970/26]

971. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the waiting times for patients with suspected cancer for access to diagnostic tests; and the compliance rate with key performance indicators and standards in this area. [3971/26]

972. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health the number of children eligible for school dental screening in each of the years 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025, broken down by school cohort, and the number actually screened in each year, by HSE CHO area; and to outline the measures taken by her Department to ensure that national screening coverage targets are met in light of repo…

973. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health the number of dentists employed by the HSE in the public dental service in each of the years 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025; the number of approved but unfilled dentist posts currently within the HSE, by CHO area; and to outline the Department's assessment of whether current staffing levels are sufficient to deliver the statutory sc…

974. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health to outline the policy analysis undertaken by her Department on the impact of reduced access to school dental screening on child oral health outcomes, including untreated decay and delayed intervention; whether this issue has been identified as a public health risk within departmental planning; and the steps being taken to address these risks wi…

975. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health if her Department has conducted or commissioned a workforce planning review of the public dental service in the past five years; if so, to provide details of the findings relevant to recruitment and retention of dentists within the HSE; and to outline the policy measures currently in place or under consideration to improve recruitment and reten…

976. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Health if specific protocols are in place for healthcare workers with regard to the provision of pain relief for unborn babies prior to late-term abortions in view of the peer-reviewed evidence that unborn babies feel pain; if so, to make them publicly available; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4001/26]

977. Deputy Tony McCormack asked the Minister for Health when a person (details supplied) will receive an orthopaedic appointment in the Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore. [4018/26]