Results 2,841-2,860 of 3,665 for speaker:Seán Power

Written Answers — Nursing Home Subventions: Nursing Home Subventions (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services was assigned to the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Therefore, the Executive is the appropriate body to consider the particular case raised by the Deputy. My Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter...

Written Answers — Health Services: Health Services (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services was assigned to the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Therefore, the Executive is the appropriate body to consider the particular case raised by the Deputy. My Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter...

Written Answers — Nursing Home Subventions: Nursing Home Subventions (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services was assigned to the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Therefore, the Executive is the appropriate body to consider the particular case raised by the Deputy. My Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter...

Written Answers — Nursing Home Subventions: Nursing Home Subventions (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services was assigned to the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Therefore, the Executive is the appropriate body to consider the particular case raised by the Deputy. My Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter...

Written Answers — Nursing Home Subventions: Nursing Home Subventions (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services was assigned to the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Therefore, the Executive is the appropriate body to consider the particular case raised by the Deputy. My Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter...

Written Answers — Sudden Cardiac Death: Sudden Cardiac Death (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: I propose to take Questions Nos. 308 and 314 together. The Report of the Task Force on Sudden Cardiac Death was published in March 2006. It makes recommendations on the prevention of sudden cardiac death and on the detection of those at high risk. Among the recommendations of the Task Force is that training initiatives should be prioritised. I understand that the HSE, which has overall...

Written Answers — Housing Aid for the Elderly: Housing Aid for the Elderly (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services was assigned to the Health Service Executive (HSE) under the Health Act 2004 and funding for all health services has been provided as part of its overall vote. The HSE's responsibility includes the operation of the Housing Aid Scheme for the Elderly, on behalf of the Department of the...

Written Answers — Housing Aid for the Elderly: Housing Aid for the Elderly (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services was assigned to the Health Service Executive (HSE) under the Health Act 2004 and funding for all health services has been provided as part of its overall Vote. The HSE's responsibility includes the operation of the Housing Aid Scheme for the Elderly, on behalf of the Department of the...

Written Answers — Housing Aid for the Elderly: Housing Aid for the Elderly (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services was assigned to the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Therefore, the Executive is the appropriate body to consider the particular case raised by the Deputy. My Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter...

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Committee Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: Under the Bill, the Chief Inspector of Social Services has responsibility for inspecting and registering designated centres. Designated centres are defined as private nursing homes and institutions, homes or centres at which residential services are provided by the Health Service Executive or a service provider for children, people with disabilities or other dependent persons. The term...

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Committee Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: The objective of HIQA, as set out in section 7, is to promote safety and quality in the provision of health, social and personal services for the benefit of the health and welfare of the public. Section 8 sets out the functions of HIQA. These include its standard setting functions for services and its information functions. Under section 8(1)(i), HIQA must evaluate available information in...

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Committee Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: The amendment proposes that the report of an investigation carried out by the HIQA should be absolutely privileged. Absolute privilege gives a complete defence to a defamation action. The legal advice is that absolute privilege applies even where the words complained of are published with knowledge of their falsehood and with the intention of injuring another. Although the Minister has...

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Committee Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: In response to Senator Henry, section 78 provides for qualified privilege to cover reports such as the Leas Cross report mentioned by the Senator. Qualified privilege means the person is protected from defamation proceedings provided they prepared their report or document in good faith. We sought legal advice on this and we are happy that absolute privilege is not necessary in this instance.

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Committee Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: Senator Ryan mentioned the Pharmacy Bill, which is different. That Bill dealt with fitness to practice hearings, which are privileged and are treated in a similar fashion to hearings of a court. We would be anxious to ensure sufficient protection and, based on legal advice, anyone who publishes a report in good faith on behalf of the authorities should have no cause for concern. We are...

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Committee Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: I thank Senators for their contributions. This is not the first legislation in which local authority members have been barred from membership of particular boards. I am reminded of a former Member of the Dáil who was critical of such matters. In criticising some legislation he said that when first elected, back in the 1960s, if a postman's job became vacant in his constituency it was only...

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Committee Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: The Senator is entitled to his opinion but ultimately, we are putting in place a board with a particular job to do. We must insert safeguards to ensure that the Minister can get involved if the board is not operating effectively. There is no desire on the part of Ministers to impose themselves and become involved in the day-to-day running of boards. It is important, however, that when we...

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Committee Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: Section 40 provides for the establishment of the office of the chief inspector of social services as a statutory office within the authority and for the holder of that office, the chief inspector of social services, to be an employee of the authority. Specifically, the section provides that the chief inspector shall be appointed by the authority in accordance with the provisions of section...

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Committee Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: In addition to statutory responsibilities for inspecting and registering residential centres the chief inspector of social services is given statutory responsibility for other matters under the Bill. These include overseeing the performance of the Health Service Executive, HSE, of its functions under sections 39, 41 and 53 of the Child Care Act 1991 in respect of fostering and preschool...

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Committee Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: The Bill provides for the chief inspector to inspect residential centres against standards set by HIQA and regulations made by the Minister. Regulations for private nursing homes are currently made under the Health (Nursing Homes) Act 1990 and regulations for children's residential centres are made under sections 38 and 63 of the Child Care Act 1991. Regulations for private nursing homes...

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Committee Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Seán Power: This is a technical amendment. In view of the significant statutory role of the chief inspector of social services it is important there be no dispute over the validity of registration decisions or other decisions made in respect of designated centres that are made at a time when the chief inspector is absent for a period or the position is vacant. This amendment empowers the authority to...