Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 July 2021
1584. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the annualised revenue and capital cost of implementing all of the remaining measures in the Health Service Breastfeeding Action Plan 2016-2021 in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34367/21]
View answer1760. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the outstanding measures in the Breastfeeding Action Plan; the estimated additional funding this requires for full implementation; the basis on which this funding must be made available that is, one-off or recurring; the revenue and capital split of this funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35468/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1584 and 1760 together.
As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to restore its IT capacity and resume normal services. Members of the Oireachtas will be advised as soon as the HSE is again in a position to provide responses to PQs and are encouraged to resubmit their Parliamentary Questions at that point.
I can say however that this year, Healthy Ireland is making a significant investment towards giving children the best start in life through facilitating the implementation of the National Breastfeeding Action Plan. Ireland has a culture of bottle feeding and, in order to improve child and maternal health, as well as reductions in childhood obesity and chronic diseases, we need to improve our breastfeeding rates. In May, funding of €1.54m was announced which will provide the additional 24 lactation consultants across hospital and community settings, that are required to ensure timely skilled assistance for mothers who wish to breastfeed and support enhanced training, skills and knowledge to frontline staff.
