Results 30,461-30,480 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I do not need to imagine the scenario that Deputy McDonald speaks about. I am a doctor by profession. I worked in the public health service for seven years. I worked in three emergency departments and visited all of the other emergency departments during my time as Minister for Health so I fully understand what the experience of an overcrowded...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I suggest that the Deputy's own lack of practical knowledge of the health service, health policy and how it works is what gives her reason to believe that there are easy solutions to complex problems such as this, which Governments of all parties have struggled to deal with for many decades. If she wants to talk to somebody about it, she should talk to her party's deputy leader, Michelle...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The Government will do everything it can to improve access to our hospitals and reduce overcrowding. That involves providing more beds, which is being done. We are up to 11,000 beds now, which is back to where we were ten years ago in terms of acute capacity in our hospitals. We have more doctors in our health service than ever before and 600 more nurses than this time last year....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy asked some very specific questions about CHO 1 and Letterkenny University Hospital. I am afraid I do not have the necessary details in order to give him answers on that, but I will ask the Minister for Health to do so via correspondence. I can, however, comment on the wider picture. There is no recruitment embargo or ban in the HSE. There are between 10,000 and 15,000 more...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: An embargo would mean nobody was being recruited or replaced, which is definitely not the case.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: People are being-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: People are being-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I will give the facts if I am permitted to do so. There has been an increase in staffing levels by grade since September 2018, or this time last year.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Since this time last year, we have recruited 125 more consultants, 189 more registrars and 301 more clinical nurse managers, who would have been called ward sisters or senior nurses in the past. There are 143 more nurse and midwife specialists and 111 more staff nurses and midwives. Since this time last year, a considerable number of front-line healthcare professionals-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----have been recruited. Not only have those who have left been replaced, extra staff have been hired on top of that. What is no longer permitted is HSE managers taking on staff if they do not have the budget to pay them. That is the norm across the public service.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: They should not recruit people they do not have a budget to pay for.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Regarding Clonmel hospital, which I know is very severely overcrowded at the moment, a new bed block is under construction there and we will get it open as soon as we possibly can once construction is finished.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: As for Limerick, as Deputies will be aware, a new emergency department, perhaps the most modern in the country, is open and functioning; a new block, the Leben block, opened two or three years ago; a further block of 60 beds is under construction and should open next year; and another block of 96 beds is planned to be built after that. Deputy Healy, I think, called for the reopening of the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----any emergency departments. In fact, they say we should further consolidate them because modern emergency care can only be provided properly in a relatively small number of large centres rather than a large number of small centres. The latter might have worked in the past, when medicine was different, but it will not work in the future. The mid-west and the north east tell different...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I assure the Deputy there is absolutely no need for a supplementary budget. The HSE will get an extra €1 billion next year.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: This will be the biggest budget the HSE has ever had and a very high one relative to other countries per capita-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----so that will not be necessary. The Deputy thinks the solution to hospital overcrowding is higher taxes; it is not.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The solution is more beds, more funding for fair deal, more home care packages and investment in primary care and public health, all of which is being done.

Finance Bill 2019: Financial Resolution (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I move: THAT Chapter 2 of Part 29 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (No. 39 of 1997), as amended by Committee Stage amendments 25, 26, 27 and 28, which contains provisions for allowances and credits for scientific and certain other research, be amended in the manner and to the extent specified in the Act giving effect to this Resolution.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 3, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on infrastructure met yesterday, 4 November. It works to ensure a co-ordinated approach in the areas of infrastructure, investment and delivery, Project Ireland 2040 and Rebuilding Ireland. Significant work is under way across each of these areas covered by the committee through Departments, agencies and...