The commitment in the budget last year was to provide for HRT medication to be free. That has been available to be implemented since January. The Deputy is correct to say that there had not been enough dialogue with pharmacists in the context of the implementation of the scheme. I met the Irish Pharmacy Union twice - in early February and again last week - in order to try to resolve the issues relating to the scheme and make sure that the medication is free. Women are paying in or around €45 to €50 for HRT at the moment. We need to reduce that. There was no provision in the budget last year to pay the dispensing fee, as would often be the case with other schemes. Women on the drugs payment scheme will obviously be covered if they are paying more than €80. Those on medical cards are also covered. We want the cost of the medication to be eliminated and just the dispensing fee to be left. The matter is still under negotiation with pharmacists more broadly to make sure it is workable for them.

Sentiment score: 0.14

I updated the House last week to the effect that I had received the interim report. It has since been published. The report outlines the process that HIQA is going through, including in the context of the submissions that have been made and that are being collated. In the report, HIQA indicates that it will publish the final report in May. We will need to see what that is going to say.

Sentiment score: 0.00

The Deputy is correct that the programme for Government contains a commitment in respect of the establishment of six surgical hubs. We are examining a business case for an additional hub in the north west. I am going through the detail of that. It is extremely important to recognise how additive a surgical hub can be and the support it can provide to a local acute hospital to try to remove some scheduled care in order that people have a completely separate and predictable system. A hub also makes matters easier for the hospital involved as well. We are examining in detail the business case. I would welcome any submissions the Deputy has in relation to Sligo in particular.

Sentiment score: 0.36

As the Deputy is aware, there needs to be an amendment to that legislation. There is considerable engagement between the Department of children, the Department of Justice and my Department on it and there has been intensive work. It is on the priority list for the spring legislative programme. I expect that amending legislation to be published in June. My own target is that it will be enacted by December. There is another option to commence a piece, but it is not the complete legislation and we have to set up the regulatory authority. I am quite happy to speak to the Deputy in detail about the sequence of the two elements together but the amending legislation is crucial and my target is for that to be published in June.

Sentiment score: 0.18