Questions

1856. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health the steps being taken to address the prohibitively high cost of hearing aids; if this will be dealt with in the new national hearing care plan; the timeline for publication of this plan; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19308/26]

678. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 351 of 10 December 2025, to respond to correspondence from HIQA which clearly states that criteria used in their Health Technology Assessment (HTA) of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) was not limited to patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus who have required insulin from the outset (details supplied); the steps she will t…

2263. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 378 of 16 October 2025, if the HSE Service Improvement Programme’s review of the existing provision of limb prosthetic services has been completed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [74858/25]

351. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health the reason reimbursement for continuous glucose monitors is only available to patients with type 1 diabetes who have required insulin from the outset; if reimbursement will be extended to patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes who subsequently require insulin or develop type 1 diabetes later in life; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [70714/25]

200. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health if she will direct Children’s Health Ireland to carry out a retrospective communication campaign to formally notify all families of children and young people who have ever received MAGEC rod implants of a field safety notice (FSN) issued by a manufacturer in December 2021, including those patients whose rods have been removed or who have aged out of paediatric ca…

201. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health if she will provide a detailed breakdown of the total number of children and young people in Ireland who have received MAGEC rod implants, in tabular form; the number that currently have MAGEC rods left to fuse in situ; and the number that have aged out of paediatric care with MAGEC rods still in place; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24703/25]

202. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health if she will publish the clinical rationale for the approach of leaving MAGEC rod implants in situ beyond the two-year implantation period recommended by the manufacturer in the December 2021 field safety notice (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24704/25]

203. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health if Children’s Health Ireland obtained explicit, informed consent from each family prior to a clinical decision being made to leave MAGEC rods in place to fuse in situ; if this consent process included the provision of written information outlining the known increased risks of adverse events associated with prolonged implantation beyond two years as required (deta…

204. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health if the use of MAGEC rods left to fuse in situ beyond two years in patients under the care of Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), contrary to the manufacturer’s instructions for use, was treated as off-label use under EU Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) 2017/745; if CHI ensured that a documented clinical justification was made; if families received written informatio…

205. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health if any cases involving the off-label use of MAGEC rods were reviewed by clinical governance structures, ethics committees, or hospital risk management teams within Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) (details supplied); if not, if she will now require CHI to carry out a retrospective audit of these cases to ensure regulatory and ethical compliance; and if she will ma…

206. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health if Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) routinely monitors blood levels of titanium, cobalt, and chromium in patients with MAGEC rods left to fuse in situ, in light of CHI's own findings (details supplied); if she will publish CHI's clinical policy for the follow-up and monitoring of patients who have aged out of paediatric care with MAGEC rods still in place, includi…

207. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health the number of vigilance reports or device-related incident notifications which have been submitted by Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) or the HSE to the Health Products Regulatory Authority in relation to MAGEC rods since the implementation of EU Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) 2017/745; if she will publish a breakdown of the nature of adverse events or faults re…

208. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health the reason MAGEC rods remain unapproved for general use in Ireland and are only accessible under compassionate grounds; if she will publish the clinical and regulatory rationale for this continued restriction, including any safety concerns identified by the Health Products Regulatory Authority or other regulatory bodies; the steps being taken to assess the safety…

209. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health if Children’s Health Ireland and associated paediatric spinal services record and report deaths of children and young people following scoliosis surgery using internationally recognised postoperative timeframes, including 30-day and 90-day mortality and in-hospital death; if she will publish all available data on postoperative mortality following scoliosis surger…

419. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health the status of the HIQA review into the use of surgical implants and medical devices at Children's Health Ireland; the date on which she expects this report to be presented to her; if she will commit to publishing the report thereafter; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18322/25]