Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 June 2020
374. Deputy Frankie Feighan asked the Minister for Health if he will consider expanding the number of rare health conditions which are tested for under the heel prick screening process for newborn babies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10023/20]
View answerCurrently all newborn babies (between 3 and 5 days old) are offered newborn bloodspot screening (generally known as the ‘heel prick’) through their parents/guardians for eight very rare conditions that are treatable if detected early in life.
A National Screening Advisory Committee (NSAC) was established in 2019 and has held two meetings to date. The Committee’s role is to undertake an independent assessment of the evidence for screening for a particular condition against internationally accepted criteria and make recommendations accordingly.
I appointed Professor Niall O’Higgins as Chair of this Committee in 2019 and asked that, as part of its initial body of work, the Committee prioritise a review of the national newborn blood-spot screening programme and look specifically at how Ireland should best proceed with an expansion in line with international best practice. Any future potential changes to the National Newborn Bloodspot Screening Programme will be incorporated as part of the Committee's work programme.
Ireland, has always evaluated the case for commencing a national screening programme against international accepted criteria – collectively known as the Wilson Jungner criteria. The evidence bar for commencing a screening programme should and must remain high. This ensures that we can be confident that the programme is effective, quality assured and operating to safe standards. There is no doubt that newborn screening programmes have the potential to be rapidly transformed by new technologies and new therapies but this highlights the need to continue with a robust, methodologically sound and detailed analysis of the evidence in each and every case against internationally accepted screening criteria.
However, it is most likely that over the course of the next 5 years we are likely to see an incremental expansion of the bloodspot programme that will screen for new conditions.
Updates in relation to screening will be posted on the NSAC website (https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/nsac/).
