As I was not aware I was sharing time, I will have to pare back what I intended to say. It is difficult to make a meaningful contribution to a debate on the health services in four minutes. However, I will do my best. 

I welcome the opportunity to debate the Labour Party’s motion. It is [...]

 
I welcome the Minister of State to the House and the opportunity to approve the motion to extend for a further eight months the investigative period of theCommission to Inquire into Child Abuse. 

This debate is taking place because it is necessary under the Act for both Houses of the Oireachtas to approve the order to [...]

I welcome the Minister of State and congratulate him on his promotion. It is not an enviable task. The “Prime Time Investigates” programme has concentrated much public attention on the Minister of State’s area of responsibility and that is the context in which this debate is taking place. It is always important not to respond [...]

Green Party Deputy Leader Mary White TD marked World Alzheimer’s Day today with a Tea Party in aid of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland in Leinster House. Green Party Health spokesperson Senator Déirdre de Búrca will host a Tea Party in her constituency office in Bray tomorrow. The Big Brew Tea Party, organised in conjunction [...]

The Green Party has always taken a strong interest in the issue of allergies and asthma, increasingly common public health problems in Western society. We see allergies as an important area of health policy with strong links to a range of environmental factors. An allergy is a hyper-sensitive or exaggerated reaction by an individual’s immune [...]

The Green Party has welcomed the announcement of funding from the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs for a further 39 applicant organisations under The Scheme of Community Support for Older People. According to Green Party Senator, Deirdre de Burca, this brings to 200 the number of organisations who have benefited from funding amounting [...]

Will the Minister of State clarify what contingency plans the Health Service Executive has in place should pharmacists withdraw from dispensing as part of the community drug scheme, as they have threatened to do from 1 May?  I know this issue was raised with the Minister during the previous debate on patient safety, which was [...]

I welcome the Minister to the House.  I thank her for addressing the issue of patient safety.  There is little disagreement in the House that patient safety must be the top priority for all our health care systems.  The importance of the issue of patient safety was recognised in the current programme for Government in [...]

Will the Leader raise with the Minister for Health and Children the audit of stroke care services commissioned by the Irish Heart Foundation, the results of which have been published and reported on in this morning’s newspapers?  The findings are very worrying.  There are between 350 and 500 deaths each year due to strokes.  Some [...]

I see in this morning’s newspapers that the regulator for the pharmacy sector is considering ways of expanding the services provided by the pharmacy sector to include important primary care services such as screening for diabetes and other common disorders, managing long-term stable conditions and delaing with minor ailments in order that people do not [...]