Written Answers Nos. 281-300
281. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Health the expected timeframe in which the strategic workforce advisory group considering the challenges to homecare will report with recommendations regarding the ongoing difficulties with the recruitment and retention of homecare staff; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51620/21]
View answerThe Department is committed to examining the staffing issues experienced by homecare services together with the involvement of key stakeholders including representatives from the homecare sector and across relevant Government departments and agencies. It is intended to provide a forum for practical action and collaboration aimed at identifying the issues that are leading to shortages in the sector.
The Department will bring forward proposals on the scope and potential timeframe for this work as a matter of priority.
282. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Health the number of posts through (details supplied) that will be provided to CH08; the expected timeframe for the recruitment for these posts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51621/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
283. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Health if he will detail the incentives and alternatives being considered to attract more workers into homecare; and the engagements he has had on the issue with various other departments. [51622/21]
View answerThe Department has committed to establishing a cross departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group. The role of the group will be to facilitate the views of stakeholders, and examine the evidence regarding the skills and labour market shortage, in home support and nursing homes. Potential areas to be considered include recruitment, retention, skills development, and the sustainable employment of home carers into the future. The Department is working to scope and plan for the establishment of this group. It is envisaged that it will include representatives from the home support sector and across relevant Government departments and agencies. It is intended to provide a forum for practical action and collaboration aimed at identifying the issues that are leading to shortages in the sector.
284. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Health the number of persons per CHO in tabular form from the establishment of the scheme who have availed of HSE funding to hire homecare support providers themselves; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51623/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
285. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health if he will address a matter (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51639/21]
View answerIn relation to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
286. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health if a person (details supplied) can get a bed in Kenmare Community Hospital; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51643/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
287. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Health the number of children affected by delays and cuts in the children’s disability network teams in each Dublin postal district; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51673/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
288. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Health the legal rationale underpinning the age limit of 17 to 25 years of age for those accessing free contraception as set out in the €31 million women’s health package in Budget 2022;; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51700/21]
View answerThe Programme for Government commits to providing free contraception for women, starting with the 17-25 age cohort; accordingly, funding for free contraception, starting with women aged 17-25, has been allocated in 2022.
The scheme will provide for:
- The cost of prescription contraception
- The cost of fitting and/or removal of various types of long-acting reversible contraception and administration of contraceptive injections plus any necessary checks, by medical professionals certified to fit/remove same;
- The cost of training and certifying additional medical professionals to fit and remove long-acting reversible contraception;
- The cost of a maximum of two consultations per annum with GPs and other doctors to discuss forms of contraception suitable for individual patients and to enable prescription of same.
- Training and certification of additional GPs to fit long-acting reversible contraception
It is envisaged that a wide range of contraceptive options, currently available to medical card holders, will be made available through this scheme. This includes contraceptive injections, implants, various types of intrauterine system (IUS) or device (IUD; commonly known as the coil), the contraceptive patch and ring, and various forms of oral contraceptive pill.
As noted by the Report of the Working Group on Contraception, which is available on my Department’s website, the justifications for the phased and incremental introduction of free contraception are based on the differential barriers faced in accessing the most effective forms of contraception by different age cohorts, and likely supply-side constraints.
The initiative is gradually being introduced by age cohort, starting with younger women who are least likely to be financially independent and where cost has been shown to be a greater barrier to accessing the most effective forms of contraception, long acting, reversible contraception, or LARCs.
The Report advises that an issue highlighted by both the research review, and by many stakeholders, is a possible lack of capacity to deliver some forms of contraception. Many forms of LARC require specialised certification and training in terms of fitting and removal. The costs of prescription contraception medications and/or medical devices are currently covered under the GMS scheme, for those holding a medical card, while clinical costs are covered under both the medical and GP visit cards.
However, for private patients, the up-front costs of various LARCs were estimated by the Report at €250 - €350 in 2018-2019; with the majority of stakeholders reporting this as a barrier to access, particularly for younger women. The removal of cost barriers is almost certainly going to increase demand for these services.
In developing the scheme, this has been taken into account and funding has been provided in Budget 2022 for training and certification of additional GPs to fit LARCs,. However, this upskilling is likely to take time, hence the adoption of a phased approach to implementation, as outlined in the Programme for Government.
Providing free contraception to the age cohort of 17-24 year old women was one of the recommended options in the Report. This was extended to 17-25 in the Program for Government and this is the rationale for the initial rollout announced in Budget 2022.
289. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health if he will address a matter (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51701/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.
290. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he or any official from his Department has held meetings or conducted correspondence with a company (details supplied) from 1 January 2017 to date; if his Department has engaged the services of the company for any purposes from 1 January 2017 to date; if so, the nature of such services and the costs incurred; if a tender process was conducted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51348/21]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that neither myself nor officials from my Department held meetings or conducted correspondence with a company (details supplied) from 1 January 2017 to date, nor did my Department engage the services of the company for any purpose during the years in question.
291. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the afforestation scheme is classed as an environmental scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51397/21]
View answerThe Forestry Programme 2014-2020 (extended to end 2022) provides significant supports for afforestation scheme which contains measures aimed at protecting the environment and biodiversity.
All forestry licences issued must comply with the requirements of EU and national environmental law, environmental policy that falls within the scope of EU law, and the four environmental principles that inform those frameworks.
Although not an exclusive list this includes the Birds Directive, the Habitats Directive, the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, the Water Framework Directive, and the Dangerous Substances Directive, as well as the prevention principle.
This aims to prevent environmental damage rather than to react to it; and the rectification at source principle, which seeks to prevent pollution at its source rather than remedy its effects.
The Department's Land Types for Afforestation procedure (2017) and Environmental Requirements for Afforestation (2016) are significant in this regard, as together they exclude a wide range of sensitive sites and habitats (including non-designated Annex I habitats) from afforestation, and stipulate measures to include existing habitats and undisturbed setback on sites which are deemed eligible.
292. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the meetings the Minister of State with responsibility for Land Use and Biodiversity had with banks in relation to forestry contractors; the banks they met with; the dates these meetings took place on; the outcomes of these meetings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51398/21]
View answerI can confirm that both myself and Minister of State Pippa Hackett have held meetings with bank officials in relation to forestry.
Minister Hackett met with officials from Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank and AIB in September 2020 and discussed, inter alia, cashflow for operators within the forestry sector.
I met with the CEO of AIB in October 2020 and the CEOs of Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank in November 2020. I raised the issue of temporary liquidity difficulties in the forestry sector and asked that credit demand from forestry contractors be examined in the context of the situation regarding licensing.
The Irish forestry sector is a significant employer in rural Ireland of almost 12,000 jobs. I and Minister Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector, remain committed to supporting the sector and to addressing licensing issues.
We have a framework in place through Project Woodland to deal with the backlog of licences and we have invested significant time and resources in doing so. This is producing results, with 585 licences issued in September, the highest in any month since April 2019. We will continue to work on sustaining licence output for the benefit of all involved in the sector.
293. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if applications submitted to the Forest Service are dealt with sequentially going by the TFL number allocated to each individual application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51399/21]
View answerThe Department assesses all forestry licence and scheme applications on their own merits and in combination with other plans and projects in the area. The Deputy is aware of the backlog of forestry licences awaiting assessment and that the majority of these are referred to ecology.
Circular 08/2021 published last June, set out the work the Department had conducted to streamline the licence assessment process. The Circular detailed the improvements had been made to the system, to optimise the ecologists’ time to concentrate on the ecological aspects of each application. At the time of the Circular, the improvements that had been applied to private tree felling licence (TFL) applications with ecologists working mostly on these files in advance of the system being developed further to assist with forest road works and afforestation licence applications.
In relation to the tree felling licence applications on hand, the Department undertook a triage exercise to determine the quality of the supporting documentation submitted. Resulting from this, a cohort of applications were deemed to be complete enough to enable the ecological assessment. The remaining cases were communicated to the applicants or their registered foresters, detailing the issues involved.
Since then, the Department has been working through those complete applications and those for which the requested information has been received. Ecologists are assigned applications on a county basis and within those they prioritise, taking the older applications first. It may also be the case that two or more applications proximate to each other are assessed together, regardless of when they were received to ensure consistency.
I am pleased to report that this has been a very successful exercise and that we are now issuing an average of 115 new licences per week since the beginning of September.
294. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of bilateral meetings he or his senior staff have had with the forestry industry in the past three to six months in connection to the CAP strategic plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51400/21]
View answerA consultation on the draft interventions of the CAP Strategic Plan which was conducted in August and September this year has been met with a lot of interest and the Department has received many submissions in response which are currently being examined.
Forest Industries Ireland (FII) made a submission containing proposals on the further integration of tree and forest planting initiatives.
Bilateral meetings between the Department and FII have taken place on 17th May 2022 and 2nd September 2022 respectively. FII have followed-up on their submission with further detailed queries which are currently being considered by Department officials.
The Department also presented to the COFORD Council on the same issues last week, as well of course as ongoing engagement with the CAP Consultative Committee.
As outlined in the draft interventions that have been published by the Department, several tree planting measures have been proposed to be included in the CAP Strategic Plan. Due to the long-term nature of forestry, it is not proposed to include forest planting measures in the new CAP measures, but a separate Forestry Programme which will be the successor of the current Forestry Programme 2014-2020 (extended to end 2022) will be developed.
The planting of trees has the potential to play a significant part in our environmental priorities especially water quality, biodiversity and climate.
I remain committed to integration between the new Forest Strategy and the next CSP to ensure that measures in both will complement each other and lead to increased levels of tree planting.
295. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the percentage of forestry licence applications which are screened by his Department for appropriate assessments in the past 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51401/21]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware of certain Court of Justice of the European Union decisions and their subsequent application in the High Court and other appeals bodies, pertaining to the environmental assessment of planning applications.
Forestry licences, that is afforestation, forest road works, aerial fertilisation and tree felling licences are considered planning applications. Therefore, the Department reflected on the CJEU decisions, which resulted in a change to the way forestry licence applications are assessed.
Prior to the decisions, mitigations could be included in the application. However, this is not now possible, which means many more applications are screened in for a comprehensive ecological assessment and approximately 80% of all forestry licences are now referred to our Ecology Unit. We now have 26 ecologists, whereas at the time of the CJEU decision we had one.
296. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the management structure and reporting lines or line managers of the Forest Service of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51403/21]
View answer297. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the productivity of each of the inspectors and their line managers in the Forest Service in each of the years 2019, 2020 and to date in 2021, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51404/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 296 and 297 together.
There are three Divisions within the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine dealing with forestry matters – Forestry Policy Division, Forestry Inspectorate Division and Forest Sector Development Division.
The first is led by a Principal Officer and the other two are led by Senior Inspectors. The three divisions report to the Assistant Secretary General with responsibility for forestry. Within this structure on the administrative side, there are Assistant Principal Officers, Higher Executive Officers, Executive Officers and Clerical Officers. On the inspectorate and forest sector development side, there are Grade 1, 2 and 3 Forestry Inspectors as well as some administrative staff.
The performance of all DAFM staff is managed through a Performance Management Development System. Inspectors are involved in a range of activities, many of which involve interdependencies with other colleagues. They are, for instance, involved in payment and licensing applications, inspections, alleged illegal felling, appeals, policy and environmental matters, forestry support schemes and forest health. This means that productivity cannot be conveyed by any one metric.
298. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the date the attention of the Forest Service section of his Department was drawn to SI No. 293 of 2021, the details and implications of which were outlined through circular 10 of 2021 on 7 July 2021; if his officials were involved or consulted with before this statutory instrument became law; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51405/21]
View answer299. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if staff from the Forest Service division of his Department were aware of SI No. 293 of 2021 before issuing circular 8 of 2021 which was issued on 17 June 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51406/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 298 and 299 together.
The European Union (Birds and Natural Habitats) (Amendment) Regulations, 2021, (S.I. No. 293 of 2021) were signed on 21st June, 2021 by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. My Department was made aware of it later that week by that Department.
These Regulations were signed after Circular 8/2021 issued. However, the contents of that Circular are unaffected by the SI.
300. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if there is a requirement for a veterinarian to be present at all greyhound racetracks when greyhound trials are taking place; if there is a requirement for all greyhound trials to be recorded or if unofficial greyhound trials take place at greyhound stadiums that are not registered; the number of injured greyhounds recorded in the past 12 months at greyhound trials; and the reporting mechanism that is in place to document all injuries sustained by greyhounds at greyhound trials. [51441/21]
View answerRásaíocht Con Éireann (RCÉ) is a commercial state body, established under the Greyhound Industry Act, 1958 chiefly to control greyhound racing and to improve and develop the greyhound industry. RCÉ is a body corporate and a separate legal entity to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
The question raised by the Deputy is an operational matter for RCÉ and, therefore, the question has been referred to the body for direct reply.
