Niamh Smyth
Question:658. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Health the progress made on the equality objectives of his Department specifically relating to women. [11076/22]
View answerTuesday, 1 March 2022
Questions (658)
Written answers
My Department is committed to the fulfilment of its Public Sector Duty. Section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 imposes a statutory obligation on public bodies in performing their functions to have regard to the need to:
- Eliminate discrimination;
- Promote equality of opportunity and treatment for staff and persons to whom it provides services; and
- Protect the human rights of staff and services users.
In fulfilment of our obligations under the Public Sector Duty we are currently undertaking a detailed self-assessment with the following objectives:
1. To better understand how the Duty is currently understood and implemented within the Department.
2. To identify the key equality and human rights issues for the Department of Health to prioritise during the strategic period 2021-2023.
3. To prioritise these issues and develop an action plan.
4. To increase awareness of the Duty amongst Department of Health staff.
Consideration of equality is threaded through all activity within my Department. With specific regard to Women's Health, my Department has made significant progress in discharging the commitments under "Promoting Women's Health" in the Programme for Government. Progress to date includes:
- A Women’s Health Action Plan for 2022-2023 is currently being finalised and is expected to be published in the coming weeks.
- The inter-Departmental Period Poverty Implementation Group was established in 2021 and has met twice, with additional bilateral meetings. €0.71m has been allocated to support initial period poverty implementation measures in Budget 2022.
- In May 2021, the Minister announced funding of €1.58m to provide an additional 24 Lactation Consultants across hospital and community settings.
- Almost €9 million to fund access to contraception for women aged 17-25 was allocated in Budget 2022. The Contraception Implementation Group meets regularly and is working towards the projected start date of August 2022, in laying the groundwork for implementation.
- All three national cancer screening programmes continue to operate, CervicalCheck are screening at pre-Covid levels. New initiatives progressing, e.g., the new National Cervical Screening Laboratory, three new mobile screening units for BreastCheck, one is now operational, two are expected to arrive in the coming weeks. A proposal for a collaborative initiative between WHO-IARC/DOH/NSS has commenced to support Ireland in delivering an exemplar Cervical Cancer Screening Programme for their population.
- The CervicalCheck Steering Committee has held seven meetings to date. 166 of 170 recommendations made in the Scally report are now complete with the remaining 4 in progress. Minister asked Dr. Gabriel Scally to conduct a final progress review of implementation of the recommendations of his Scoping Inquiry into the CervicalCheck screening programme. Dr. Scally has agreed and work on this commenced in January 2022.
- The Schools Immunisation Programme 2021/2022 (including HPV programme) is underway.
- The Assisted Human Reproduction Bill is on the spring legislative programme and is expected to be published in the coming weeks. The review of the operation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 commenced in 2021 and a final report is expected to be submitted to the Minister later in 2022.
- The Minister for Health has appointed Ms Marie O’Shea B.L. as the independent Chair of the Review of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. The Chair will assess the extent to which the Act’s objectives have, and have not, been achieved and will make recommendations to address any barriers identified. Research is currently underway to support this Review.
- The implementation of the National Maternity Strategy has been underway for 5 years and significant progress has been made to date. Under Budgets 2021 and 2022, almost €16m in new development funding has been allocated to maternity services, in line with the Programme for Government. This investment is ensuring the continued roll out of the Strategy’s model of care, including increased choice for women and an increase in access to allied and specialist care across the system.
- In accordance with a recent Review of Maternity Services, project briefs are being developed for each of the relocation of the Coombe Hospital, the Rotunda Hospital, and the relocation of Limerick University Maternity Hospital. Completed project briefs are expected end 2022.
- The project for the relocation of National Maternity Hospital Holles St. to the St. Vincent’s University Hospital Campus is progressing. Enabling Works & Decant Project are ongoing, with main works on site expected to commence end 2023.
In addition, the Department of Health Statement of Strategy 2021-2023 commits to “a culture of respect, collaboration and innovation, where staff feel empowered in their roles and supported in the pursuit of a healthy work/life balance.”