Departmental Schemes

1284. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the Department has examined the establishment of an independent oversight or inspection mechanism for the treatment abroad scheme, comparable to governance arrangements applying in other areas of publicly funded healthcare expenditure. [39186/26]

1285. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any assessment has been undertaken regarding the appropriateness of relying primarily on referring consultants for overseas treatment selection and governance assurance under the treatment abroad scheme. [39187/26]

1286. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health the total annual expenditure under the treatment abroad scheme for each year from 2020 to 2026, inclusive, and the proportion of that expenditure subject to formal audit review. [39188/26]

1287. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the HSE conducts any comparative benchmarking of treatment costs between different EU or EEA jurisdictions under the treatment abroad scheme; and if she will provide details of the methodology used. [39189/26]

1289. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any central register exists recording the total annual cost per treatment category funded under the treatment abroad scheme. [39191/26]

1291. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the Department of Health has carried out any review assessing whether certain procedures regularly funded abroad under the treatment abroad scheme could be developed domestically within the public health system. [39193/26]

1292. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any maximum financial approval thresholds apply under the treatment abroad scheme before additional senior management or Departmental approval is required. [39194/26]

1295. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the treatment abroad scheme is currently subject to any formal risk assessment relating to expenditure growth, cost escalation, or dependency on overseas treatment provision. [39197/26]

1296. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any external consultancy, economic review, or health technology assessment has been commissioned in relation to expenditure under the treatment abroad scheme since 2020. [39198/26]

1299. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any structured patient follow-up programme exists for persons returning to Ireland following procedures funded under the treatment abroad scheme. [39201/26]

1301. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any value-for-money framework exists comparing the clinical outcomes and costs associated with overseas procedures funded under the treatment abroad scheme against equivalent treatment pathways domestically. [39203/26]

1302. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the HSE maintains any provider-level performance monitoring system in respect of overseas hospitals or clinics receiving treatment abroad scheme referrals. [39204/26]

1303. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any formal patient safety governance framework exists specifically governing procedures funded under the treatment abroad scheme. [39205/26]

1306. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the absence of structured clinical outcome monitoring under the treatment abroad scheme has been identified on any Departmental or HSE risk register. [39208/26]

1307. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the HSE maintains a category-specific expenditure breakdown for procedures funded under the treatment abroad scheme; and if so, whether gender affirmation surgeries are separately identifiable within those records. [39210/26]

1308. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any value-for-money assessment has been conducted regarding overseas gender affirmation surgeries funded under the treatment abroad scheme since 2020. [39211/26]

1309. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any risk assessment, governance review or assurance process has been undertaken specifically relating to overseas gender affirmation surgery approvals under the treatment abroad scheme. [39212/26]

1313. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the HSE records the total annual number of gender affirmation surgery applications approved under the treatment abroad scheme since 2020, by year. [39216/26]

1336. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the treatment abroad scheme maintains any dataset identifying the highest-cost individual referrals funded annually; and if she will provide the ten highest annual individual treatment costs since 2020 in anonymised form. [39341/26]

1337. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the HSE maintains a central register of high-cost treatment abroad scheme approvals; and if so, the criteria used to classify cases as high-cost. [39345/26]

1378. Deputy Marie Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the estimated full year cost of providing reimbursement under the general medical services scheme for sublingual immunotherapy for house dust mite allergy; the number of patients estimated to be eligible for such treatment; and the specific assumptions used in calculating this estimate. [39643/26]

1409. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any national policy exists setting minimum audit, outcome-monitoring or data-governance requirements before new healthcare pathways, treatment programmes or overseas referral arrangements are operationally supported by the State. [39758/26]

1416. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any Departmental or HSE official holds specific national responsibility for governance oversight of minors referred abroad under the Treatment Abroad Scheme; and if she will provide details. [39775/26]

1422. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any national framework exists governing audit, quality assurance and value-for-money assessment of overseas referrals funded through the Treatment Abroad Scheme. [39781/26]

135. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht whether his Department uses population growth, demographic need, deprivation, disability access, public transport access and existing amenity deficits when assessing applications under community and rural development funding schemes; whether any formal weighting is applied to large and growing towns th…