Research background and objectives
• The Department of Health has committed to improving women’s health services through it’s Women’s Health Action Plan 2024-2025 Phase 2: An Evolution in Women’s Health.
• This plan builds on previous initiatives such as the Radical Listening exercises conducted in collaboration with the Women’s Health Taskforce and the National Women’s Council in 2021.
• These exercises, involving over 278 participants, revealed a common sentiment amongst women in Ireland, that their healthcare concerns were often dismissed or not taken seriously.
• Positive headway has been made since then, with several improvements in women’s healthcare being implemented, including Specialist Menopause Clinics, Endometriosis Hubs, Free Contraception Scheme, Screening Services etc.
• In addition to these advancements, the Department of Health acknowledges that women’s lived experiences must continue to inform healthcare policy and service development. This is part of the framework – Listen. Invest. Deliver.
• As part of it’s Phase 2 commitment, there was a need to conduct a structured patient voice forum- “Women’s Experiences of Healthcare in Ireland Listening Forum”, to capture real-world insights into healthcare access challenges. Coyne Research facilitated and reported on these sessions.

Report 2: Insights from targeted listening sessions with priority groups of women: Building on the 2021 Women’s Health Taskforce “radical listening” exercises, this project comes at a time of major public investment in women’s health, including menopause clinics, ambulatory gynaecology services, state-funded IVF, and the Free Contraception Scheme. Through 73 listening sessions and interviews, and a Collective Event, the project engaged Traveller women, Roma women, migrant women, disabled women, LGBTQ+ communities, older women, women experiencing homelessness and addiction, and survivors of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV). An intersectional and participatory methodology was used, guided by the AAAQ framework – Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability, and Quality.

The primary objective of this report is to capture and highlight the healthcare experiences of women from communities whose voices are frequently underrepresented in mainstream health policy. While NWC-led on all the sessions with support from various relevant organisations, the engagement with Traveller women and the second engagement with Roma women was led by Pavee Point and the National Traveller Women’s Forum. The engagement with the total 73 participants of this project took place through a combination of listening sessions (focus groups), in-depth interviews, and a Collective Event. This includes:

• Traveller women and Roma women, who experience health inequities due to the social determinants of health, including racism and discrimination (Pavee Point, 2024).
• Migrant women, whose experiences are often complicated by language barriers, stigma, immigration or international protection status, and an absence of local knowledge required to navigate health services (ESRI, 2022).
• Women experiencing homelessness and/or addiction, whose healthcare needs are intertwined with other complex social determinants of health (NWC, 2018). 
• Disabled women, who can encounter a health service that is often not designed to meet their needs and does not recognise the intersection of disability and gender (ILMI, 2025).
• LGBTQ+ communities, whose healthcare experiences are often shaped by heteronormative assumptions about women’s health (The LGBT Ireland Report, 2016).
• Older women, who are at a greater risk than men of poverty and social exclusion yet encounter a health system where their needs are often overlooked or under-prioritised in policy (Age Action, 2022). While no targeted listening session was organised for older women exclusively, efforts were made to include older women in all of the listening sessions to ensure their experiences were included and captured.
• Survivors and victims of Domestic, Sexual, and Gender-Based Violence (DSGBV), whose healthcare experiences are deeply impacted by trauma and stigma (NWC, 2024).