I think the Minister of State is conflating fatigue risk management systems with accounting of hours. Crews would say they are two completely different things. Of course there should be fatigue risk management systems but this is counting one quarter of their hours as rest time. The Minister of State acknowledged in his response that these crew had to remain on base and were ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. The Minister of State said that this was a HR issue, was not for the Department, and was between th…

I have brought forward a plan for healthcare. I will send it on to you.

I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following: “Report on profits, rising costs, and potential impact of removal of private practice from public hospitals 3. The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 33: “Report on profits, rising costs, and potential impact of removal of private care from public hospitals 33A. (1) The Authority shall, before and by 31 July 2026, prepare and submit a report to the Minister for Health having— (a) undert…

What we were looking for was a report that would look at a number of things. If the Minister looks at what the amendment actually calls for, it is for the preparation and submission of a report from the Minister for Health, having undertaken a review of the current profit rates of health insurance providers. The Minister will have noticed over the past year that most of the private providers have increased their premiums. One of the reasons they give, similar to what we are seeing in the public health service, is h…

It will be a long night.

We have seen over the past ten years real improvements in healthcare technology, which are bringing tremendous benefits for patients and real opportunities for more care at home. I am sure Deputy Harris saw some of that when he was Minister for Health, and some of that evolving. However, it has changed and expanded exponentially over the past four or five years. We now see the HSE rolling out virtual wards and virtual beds where patients can be monitored at home. All of that is for the good. The issue Deputy Dohert…

Maybe next year?

This is an annual Bill that renews the risk equalisation mechanism, which supports the community-based health insurance market. Obviously, I recognise the fact that many people rely on health insurance, so for that reason, we will be supporting the Bill. However, as in previous years, I will be critiquing what I see as a two-tier system and an insurance market system that I fundamentally do not agree with. Many people take out private health insurance because they feel they must. There are some people who will take…

Respectfully, the Minister seems to have missed the point of the Bill. He has argued that victims who have reason to fear for their safety following the release of a convicted perpetrator have several legal avenues available to them to seek protection. The problem is that for many victims, those legal protections, as the Minister called them, are simply not fit for purpose because they force the victim to go back to court, retraumatise that person and put the onus and responsibility back on the victim, which is wro…

My first question is in relation to the national cancer strategy. The Minister might be aware the Irish Cancer Society has been raising concerns over the past number of weeks and months in relation to access to diagnostics, staffing shortages across cancer centres and cancer services but also insufficient and inconsistent funding for the national cancer strategy. The Minister might outline to the House, if she can, what additional funding has been made available for the national cancer strategy and for cancer servi…

The Irish Cancer Society was before the Oireachtas health committee a number of weeks ago. It raised very serious concerns in relation to major delays in diagnostics and treatment, particularly in the areas of colonoscopy, breast and prostate clinics, imaging, surgery and radiation therapy. It raised concerns about severe staffing shortages in radiology, cancer nursing and radiation therapy. I put down a parliamentary question on the number of scanners and the diagnostic equipment that is lying idle, is not being f…

I fully understand that cancer services go beyond the national cancer strategy. Of course that is the case. Across all of our acute hospitals, cancer services are provided that are outside the remit of the national cancer strategy. That strategy is also important in bringing together stakeholders. It is meant to bring consistency in services and it looks at where gaps are and so on. I had this discussion with the Minister at the Oireachtas health committee yesterday. I do not need to know exactly how the money is g…

This question relates to diagnostic waiting lists and the number of patients waiting for various forms of diagnostic equipment in hospitals across the State. The numbers are quite high, as I am sure the Minister will see. What are her views and plans for how she will reduce those wait times and the number of people who are waiting for a diagnostic scan?

The most recent figures are that almost 300,000 people are on a waiting list for a diagnostic scan. Over 77,000 of those have been waiting more than a year and over 46,000 have been waiting more than 18 months. That is far in excess of any Sláintecare targets. I gave examples earlier of CT scanners and other diagnostic equipment that are not being fully utilised, partly because we do not have the staff. I agree with the Minister that we need to do everything possible to fully utilise existing scanners and equipment…

I took an active interest in the area of diagnostics after my mother passed. She went for a check in an emergency department and was told she would have to wait for possibly 12 to 18 months for a CT scan. We had the money to send her privately. She had that scan done in a matter of weeks, was diagnosed with cancer and, unfortunately, within a year had passed away. I know how important it is for people to get that timely access. I can only imagine how difficult it is for a person who is told they could be waiting mo…

I do not think the Minister of State or the Government get it at all. People outside this building wonder whether they live in a bubble and whether they have any understanding of what it is like for ordinary families. The Government initiated these statements on the issues and rising costs affecting the haulage industry when the Government is responsible for those same rising costs. What is ironic and a real slap in the face to everybody faced with rising motoring costs is that we proposed a motion in this House la…

In 2017, the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, made a promise to children with scoliosis and spina bifida that long waiting lists would essentially end and that children would no longer wait in pain, deteriorate or lose the chance of life-changing and, in some cases, life-saving intervention. He promised that no child would be left waiting longer than four months for surgery. Since then, as we know, countless children have suffered in agony, without surgery within four months and, in many cases, tragically, without surgery a…

I will not hold the Minister up on this. I would say we will get through this very quickly. It is a technical amendment and the Minister is right. It is the only section of the Bill that has not been commenced, but obviously it is an important section. As the Minister said, it gives the chief inspector the discretionary powers to commission an investigation, and that is an important part of the Bill we had passed. Will the Minister say, if this Bill is passed, does it have to go to the Seanad or are these the final…

We are into next year, I take it.

It is very controversial.