Catherine Connolly
Question:222. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Health the status of the Women’s Health Action Plan; when he expects the plan to be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10211/22]
View answerWednesday, 23 February 2022
Questions (222)
Written answers
Improving women’s health outcomes is a key priority for me and this Government. We made a strong commitment to Promoting Women’s Health in the Programme for Government and are fully committed to the development and improvement of Women’s Health services and to working with women and girls to improve their health across the whole life cycle.
Underscoring the government’s commitment to Women’s Health has been the establishment of a Women’s Health Taskforce in September 2019 to improve both health outcomes and experiences of healthcare for women and girls. The members of the Taskforce meet regularly, with its fifteenth meeting held in November 2021.
An important part of the Taskforce’s work is to listen to the voices of women and engage with stakeholders both at an individual and organisation level at home and abroad who can share evidence expertise and experiences and ideas to help us achieve this goal. The Taskforce has listened to, engaged, and worked with more than 2,000 women and hundreds of stakeholders and organisations representing women and girls across the country.
We have made a specific commitment to supporting the work of the Women’s Health Taskforce, including the development of a Women’s Health Action Plan, to tackle a wide range of issues impacting women’s health outcomes in Ireland.
This Women’s Health Action Plan for 2022-2023 is currently being finalised and is expected to be brought before Government in the coming weeks. This plan has been informed by the available evidence and engagement with women across the country, key stakeholders, clinicians, and advocates for women’s health through the Women’s Health Taskforce.
The Action Plan sets forward a wide range of positive initiatives to support women’s health and provides a framework for further prioritisation as issues and needs arise.
This plan captures the women’s health activity already committed to and underway and sets out our significant ambition to build further on this in the near term over eighteen months.