I will first concentrate on the wider challenges regarding oral healthcare. There is a significant challenge that continues to affect the delivery of school-based dental programmes. In the period to November 2025, over 138,000 new patients were assessed, including 90,000 under targeted programmes in respect of school and special care programmes, but in many cases screening is delayed, meaning some children do not receive an assessment until they have already entered secondary school, except in emergencies. While th…

I am in complete agreement that this simply has to improve. While the services are there, looking at the wider workforce generally in relation to dental care, if we separate it out from orthodontics, how we use the workforce has come up a number of times. We train dentists at quite a considerable cost to the State. We do that because we want dentists to be available to do dental work, both in private practice and for the State. We want children to have screening. I do not want to deviate too much but I have been co…

We have made some good progress on the training. The RCSI has opened a new community train-and-treat facility in Sandyford and has just started building one in Connolly Hospital as well. We are making some good progress there. On screening, the seven-year-old child mentioned by Deputy Bennett needed much earlier screening, which could have been provided by a dental hygienist. The actual dental work that might be needed has to be done by a dentist. When we are trying to identify problems at an early age, we need pre…

As the Deputy will be aware, the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration has responsibility for coroners’ legislation and policy and is actively engaging with all relevant stakeholders, including my Department and the HSE. Since 2 January 2026, coronial post mortems have been provided by locum consultants recruited by the Department of justice, and the facilities and auxiliary staff of University Hospital Waterford have been provided to support that. The Department of justice has advised my Department tha…

It is important to separate out the arrangements we are talking about. This arrangement is not for all post mortems; it is for coronial-directed post mortems in instances, as the Deputy correctly identifies, of sudden or unexpected death that require and are directed to have this type of post mortem carried out. That is very much an issue for the Department of justice. Clearly, pathologists are continuing to do the work they have always been doing. Where a family has experienced a sudden tragedy - a sudden bereavem…

Again, I will direct that to my colleague, the Minister for justice, because coronial post mortems are a different thing. There is a difficulty recruiting pathologists across the country. For example, our friends in Belfast are having real difficulty on the paediatric and perinatal pathology side, which is very distressing for families with the loss of a child or a baby. There is a shortage generally but we have to create a distinction between the justice system and the health system, which continues to do its work…

Cancer services in Ireland are organised on the basis of a centralised model of care rather than a per-county basis. That enables the specialists to support the specialist centres. There are eight designated adult centres, 26 systemic anti-cancer therapy centres and three public radiation oncology centres. While performance data is collected at each centre, it is not based on where the person lives; it is based on the performance of the centre. Patients from Cavan and Monaghan are referred to the most appropriate c…

The timeline is the one we have all set in relation to the Sláintecare targets. We are all working towards that. As we discussed earlier, I would appreciate those specific examples so I can follow them up much better.

Across 2025, in Beaumont Hospital, where many patients would be referred, 80% of urgent breast cancer referrals were seen within ten working days and 98% of the non-urgent referrals were seen within 12 weeks. It sounds so impersonal to talk about the metrics, but you have to look at how everybody is experiencing it and not an individual to see how we are doing over time. In December 2025, Beaumont Hospital increased its capacity for urgent outpatient slots by ten per day to try to clear any backlog. In addition, ne…

I might separate that into two things. I do not know what I was doing ten years ago, or what the Deputy was doing ten years ago. I do not know what that has to do with anything. I do not know who wrote that for the Deputy as a political point.

If we could get to the reality of the delivery of cancer services, this Oireachtas agreed Sláintecare. I am here at the moment - there will be somebody after me, as there was somebody before me - to try to implement that and make sure we have a public system that meets people's needs as close to home as possible and in a timely way. We are making good progress with that. If the Deputy looks at our cancer strategies and how they have contributed to that, she will see that when the first cancer strategy was launched …

I thank the Deputy for allowing me to update the House on this matter. Primary care centres form an important part of our health infrastructure and provide a single point of access to primary and community care services for individuals. As the Deputy is more than aware, the need for a new primary care centre in Gorey was identified as part of the overall primary care centre development programme. The development of that centre had previously been progressing under the operational lease model. A tender process was u…

The Deputy is well aware of the circumstances in which the previous process lapsed. We will continue to make sure it progresses at the appropriate pace. I will speak to the HSE about it. We will all be very pleased when we see a tender awarded and progress beginning on the site.

I appreciate the absolute commitment to this issue by Deputy Byrne and the other Deputies from the area on behalf of the people of the region. I think we will end up with a good-sized primary care centre but we want to see progress on that and facilities expedited as much as possible. I certainly will continue to work with the Deputy and with the HSE to try to maintain the appropriate schedule to ensure the project progresses.

I appreciate the Deputy's question. My Department is committed to ensuring there is safe and equitable access to termination of pregnancy services. We have taken a number of important actions to give effect to that, on which I will update the House. In line with the programme for Government, all 19 maternity hospitals are now providing termination of pregnancy services. There has also been a continuous increase in the number of community providers, which currently stands at 487. That is hugely significant in the co…

I really do hear the Deputy. I respect that there are so many different views on this issue. I am broadly pro-choice and voted that way but I am not unreservedly pro-choice. Certainly, there are many elements of Deputy Murphy's Bill I simply do not agree with and cannot find a way to agree with. As Minister, I have tried to facilitate the broadest debate. I really do respect the very different opinions and the very different articulations of those opinions on all sides of the House. Prior to becoming Minister, I wa…

I apologise.

The very essence of democratic choice is that those who are elected by the people may come into this House and freely choose how they wish to vote. I have every respect for Deputy Coppinger's vote, just as I have every respect for the votes of the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and of Deputies O'Shea, Ó Muirí, Kerrane and every single person in this House. I respect their vote, their perspective, how they represent their constituents and what they are doing here. That is the democratic process. Citizens' assembl…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 and 104 together. I thank the Deputy. I acknowledge how consistently she raises this. She had a Topical Issue on it last week and I acknowledge her complete commitment to this issue and to the people of Roscommon. As she will be aware, the National Ambulance Service serves County Roscommon from three 24-7 bases located in Roscommon, Boyle and Loughglynn. Emergency ambulances services at these bases are staffed by NAS paramedics, advanced paramedics and emergency medical technicia…

I would be very pleased to speak with the Deputy about that in more detail. I think there is still a vacancy, based on the information I have, and I am glad the second vacancy has been filled. I would be very happy to discuss this with the Deputy more directly, but I am advised RRVs across the country are routinely crewed by paramedics or advanced paramedics and that is in accordance with the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council emergency dispatch crewing standards. Obviously, we want them to be advanced paramedics …