Results 441-460 of 1,150 for speaker:Frank Fahey

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Section 7(1) specifically refers to "including personal social services" and those services are outlined in the Health Act 2004. Personal social services, such as personal assistants, home support, home help, home care assistants and so on, are provided for and consequently will have to be catered for under the Bill.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Under the definition, the Bill provides for all of the health and education requirements of people with disabilities. If one adds personal social services to the other services provided for, that covers everything. I do not know of any service that is left out. This element of the Bill is covered by Part 2 only. The remainder of the Bill covers a wider brief.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Amendment No. 15 would require assessment reports to contain a priority list of services and the timing for their delivery. The principle contained in the Bill is that an assessment report would set out all required services and indicate the order in which they will be provided, together with optimal timescales for their delivery. I am not convinced that the proposed amendment would improve...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: For what?

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: The service statement will outline the services to be provided within the resource availability of the HSE. The difference between the content of the service statement and the content of the statement of assessment are the unmet needs. They will be reported in communicative form at the end of the year so that there will be a global statement of unmet needs for all people with disabilities,...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Senator Terry made the very pertinent point that there is a gap between the statement of assessment and the service statement. That unmet need can only be put right as resources become available. There is the difficulty that it will not be possible to be clear with people as to how long the service will take until it becomes available. The Government has been quite open and honest with the...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: The question asked by Senator O'Rourke is being actively discussed at present. The HSE is currently preparing the regulations which will govern the implementation of this Bill. Clearly, adequate provision of professionals, such as therapists, for assessment purposes must be put in place. That is being planned at present by the HSE. On the related question of the shortage of speech therapists,...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: What was requested by Enable Ireland is provided for in the Bill. It was provided for by way of amendment. At the end of the year we will publish the full statement of unmet needs. That will be a financial figure. The Ministers concerned will publish the aggregate unmet needs, which will facilitate service planning. More importantly, it will indicate, in a transparent way, what amount of...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: It will, as part of the HSE service planning exercise. Anywhere there is a gap or vacuum will become apparent. Those vacuums are already apparent and the intention is that the service planning will plan for the provision of the services where they are inadequate or are not provided at present. The other part of the amendment to which the Senator referred has also been dealt with. Rather than...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Amendment No. 17 would require the assessment officer to carry out an interview in all cases. It is desirable that some discretion over procedures remains with the assessment officer so the individual circumstances in each case can be considered. It may be the case that an interview is simply not required. If so, to accept the amendment would only add to the bureaucracy we want to avoid. The...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: It will cover those carried out within three months of the application.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: That will be set out in the regulations. Each form of disability will be covered by the regulations in terms of the timescale by which the assessment can be completed. The urgency of priority of particular types of disability will be provided for in those regulations. Cases of high priority will be seen immediately, as applies at present. This will be further copper-fastened in the Bill. For...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Yes, that has been confirmed. The amendment seeks to oblige the Heath Service Executive to complete assessments within three months but this may not be practicable in every situation. For example, a situation which involves a complex condition, or combination of conditions, may require the engagement of particular skills and professions in the assessment process in order to ensure that all...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: I said that the assessment must commence within three months of the application. The completion timescale of the assessment will be outlined in the regulations.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Each person is entitled to an advocate who acts on their behalf in addition to relatives or any other concerned person or professional. We are satisfied that everybody is adequately covered. There will be an onus on those who run institutions to ensure that everybody is given the opportunity to have an assessment. The regulations will outline the procedures for assessment and how they should...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: The Bill provides for anybody to apply for an assessment.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: Any employee could decide to apply on a person's behalf.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: It is essential that the assessment officer is independent. In the case of the liaison officer, it is equally essential that he or she is part of the executive involved in managing the needs of people with disabilities, within the practical constraints applying to them from time to time. This is in keeping with the role of the liaison officer, which is to prepare a service statement that is...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: No. There are two different and distinct roles but both could conceivably be carried out by the same person. The first one, governed by statutory independence, is to be able to provide a service statement of all a person's needs, irrespective of resources or any other constraints. The second role is service provision entailing the preparation of a service statement, which is deliverable and...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Frank Fahey: That is the role of the liaison officers, who are part and parcel of the HSE. Their role is to put together the contents of the service statement, which is what will be deliverable to the person involved. That is a separate role from the assessment officer who is statutorily independent. There is good reason to keep the two separate, ensuring independence on the one hand, with a clear...