Results 25,701-25,720 of 46,260 for speaker:Simon Harris

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: Could I add to that? There are two points I would make. The first, which echoes the Secretary General's, is important. We have had, and I have appeared before, Oireachtas committees that have predetermined the outcome of expert reports only to be proven to be 100% incorrect. We have had committees talking about cover-ups and the like. We have expert reports, such as that produced by Dr....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: There is. The Government of the day consciously made a decision, which remains the Government's position, that the best way of delivering this project was to bring in that expertise and professionalism rightly referred to by the Deputy that, with no disrespect to my Department, does not exist in-house in the Department such is the scale and magnitude of this. Appointing a competency-based...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: The Deputy made a fair point. Robust questioning is a really important part of any democracy but so too is due process. I do not believe it is the job, or the only job, of a Minister to find partial information, chuck it out into the media or on the floor of the Dáil and say: "That's grand. Job done. I told you all about the problem." I believe the job of a Minister is to make...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: Perhaps one day, Deputy Boyd Barrett will be in this role and can give it a go. If a Minister decides to do complex things, risk and challenge come with that but it is worth it because otherwise we will not build the national children's hospital. There is a reason the children's hospital was first mentioned in these Houses in the 1960s. My mother was born in the 1960s. How long does this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: If the Deputy wants to ask her questions, she is here all morning.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy. I have not knitted since primary school but I get the reality of what the Deputy is saying. It is a political charge but it is, as is always the case with the Deputy, one that is made very politely. I do not see that. I am very proud of the record I have so far in the Department of Health. Like many before me, I have made mistakes and I would rather have done some...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: My understanding is that, at a committee meeting yesterday, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform said he plans to bring a memo to Government next week about how we are going to deal with this capital pressure in 2019. He said there was a way to deal with the issues and he was, I believe, more optimistic than he was originally interpreted as being about it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: My understanding is that Departments will probably be given revised ceilings. There may be a new figure for what the Department of Health is getting and the question will be what the impact will be. There is a context to all of this. The capital budget of the Department of Health and the HSE is almost €700 million. We have to find €50 million during the course of 2019, and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: Neither do I. People need to have certainty about whether a particular project is happening. Once I get the final figures from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, which I presume will be next week, we will move quickly on it in the following weeks.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: I might ask Dr. Peter McKenna if he wants to add anything from a clinical perspective to what I say. I answered questions on CervicalCheck in the Dáil yesterday and we have a debate with questions and answers on the issue today. I remember the Deputy's letter and the case of Ann, which she raised here. There are no two ways about it. We have a very significant backlog in our...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: Would the Deputy like me to answer the question on the long-term illness, LTI, scheme?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: On the long-term illness card, it is not my intention to expand it in its current scope, but what I am looking at is the extension of entitlement for all health services beyond medical cards, GP visit cards and LTI cards to the universal entitlement under Sláintecare. A big body of work needs to be done on universal entitlement to health services under Sláintecare. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: My understanding is - I may have to revert to the Deputy if my HSE colleagues do not have any more information on this - Freestyle Libra is already available to certain kinds of-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: We will check that for the Deputy and come back to her directly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: My understanding is that this is currently with the HSE leadership team.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: I will ask the Secretary General to come in on a few of the issues raised by the Senator but will make a few comments first. I listened to the former Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, talking about this on the radio last weekend. He spoke about the huge volume of work that he and his Ministers did in his time, in terms of the discussion about the need for a children's hospital, what other...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: Senator Colm Burke talks about the overturn. I need to refer to it as a projected overrun because we have just asked PwC to come back to how we can rein in the costs. I want members and, most importantly, taxpayers, to know that trying to rein the costs is now what needs to happen. That is why I have asked Mr. Fred Barry, with his expertise, to take up a role. It is also why I have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: There are many sick children from Cork today in Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals. It is a project for the country that has to be located somewhere and happens to be located in Dublin. As for the elective-only hospitals, a significant body of work is being done in my Department on deciding what these will do and deciding the policy framework. I visited Scotland not that long ago to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: I hear the Senator. We will have that engagement within four weeks.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy O'Connell for raising these important matters. I will take them sequentially. Like the Deputy, I am extremely disturbed that there is an attempt by some, despite a referendum and the legislation, still to think it is in some way acceptable to treat termination of pregnancy services differently from other legally authorised services in the Irish health service. We will not...