I appreciate Senators Kyne and Byrne bringing forward this motion and giving us the opportunity to discuss this important issue. It is timely as well because there are a couple of updates that I can give that will be helpful in this context. We have a shared goal in the motion to enhance our genetic and genomic capability and to deliver high-quality care alongside value for money for the State. We are on the same page and it is a particularly timely conversation. As a number of Members said, the value that genomics…

That is not right.

You opposed it. Then you go looking for votes at the same houses you objected to.

It is disgraceful.

None of those families would be living there if it was down to you.

It is true.

I will happily list them out.

I will happily list them out.

It is about his record as a TD.

Keep going.

Not on First Stage.

Not on First Stage.

While the Deputy's question is quite broad, I know that it is really about access to healthcare which is what we all want. It is a priority for everyone in this Dáil, for me and for this Government. In December, the HSE published its national service plan for 2026, which sets out the services that the HSE will provide with its funding allocation. This builds on progress we have already made this year and in 2025. For example we have seen a 10% reduction nationally in patients on trolleys at 8 a.m. in 2025 versus 20…

I am very glad to have this timely opportunity to have this discussion with the Deputy. The reason is officials from her region and the three Dublin regions will be in with me on Monday for a whole day to go through some of these issues exactly because we are trying to manage healthcare as a region. There are patients in Cavan who will need to be treated in Beaumont, a specialist centre for neurology, or the Mater, a specialist centre for cardiology. That patient flow is absolutely crucial and so patients are movin…

There might be two slightly different issues there. The HSE app is a patient-focused app in the first instance. People can make appointments and see prescriptions. Its functionality is improving over time to be able to book appointments. It is slightly different from the broader shared care record and electronic health record. The shared care record which we are rolling out this year is the technology to be able to see if patients are moving from Cavan to Beaumont that Beaumont can immediately see all their healthc…

There has been quite a degree of confusion on this and so it is very useful to set out the circumstances of it. As part of the community pharmacy agreement in 2025, all the parties agreed to introduce improved controls for phased dispensing. That would ensure that patients on high-risk medications such as antipsychotics or opioids are appropriately targeted with support for phased dispensing rather than getting everything in one go. It is important that I clarify the difference between phased dispensing and what ha…

I really have to address the language here first of all. There is no policy to reverse because nothing has changed. The basic facts are that nothing has changed and therefore nothing can be reversed. While the Deputy and I believe that and I totally understand the reasons for that, the science does not support that. The more important thing from the State's perspective is the degree to which this service was being used incorrectly by some, not all, pharmacists for their own financial benefit. That is what this Stat…

I am particularly intrigued to see left-wing parties coming in here and asking me to give money to pharmacists to make good what had been done illegitimately. I would like to use the State's money directly for the benefit of vulnerable people but not to reward those pharmacists to keep things even for them for something that they were doing wrong in the first place.

There are many older people, including people who have contacted the Deputy - I see it on her social media pages the same as everyone else - who have told her that they have been paying for blister packs for years and they have always done so.

This is not a back-and-forth and I am trying to set out the facts on it. I would love to see left-wing parties come in here and defend the interests of the State and defend the interests of the taxpayer. Sometimes I think these roles are reversed. Perhaps for Fine Gael, I should come in and articulate the speaking points of the pharmacy union, but I am trying to articulate the position of the State and to get the best for patient safety, get the best for the taxpayer and make sure that we recognise that we are not …