Results 5,061-5,080 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Programme for Government. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The agreed programme has not been renegotiated. It is still the programme to which the Government is working. Every year, we produce a report on the updated position and Ministers answer questions every day. The individual cases reported in last night's "Prime Time Investigates" programme on the accident and emergency services were very distressing for the individuals concerned, their...

Programme for Government. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: A considerable number of beds are being brought into operation in a number of hospitals under the capital programme and this year's capital programme continues this work. We have introduced step-down beds and beds for the elderly hired from the private sector.

Programme for Government. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: An initiative by the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children takes private beds out of public hospitals to designate them as private hospital beds. There is a debate within the HSE, which is the reason it is carrying out this re-examination. Senior figures in the HSE and the Department of Health and Children would argue that it relates more to the operation and use of acute beds and...

Programme for Government. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I would like to believe that if we had every one of the beds today, it would sort out all of the problems in accident and emergency units, but that is not so and Deputy Rabbitte would not believe that either. The Government has provided and built new high-cost acute beds and will continue to do so in the capital programme for this year in respect of a number of new units. I was making a point...

Programme for Government. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: If the Deputy knows more than the doctors, that is fair enough, but this is what they say.

Programme for Government. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The truth is we have 500,000 day care cases.

Programme for Government. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Those people do not need to hold acute beds on a weekly basis. That is the argument. The HSE argues that we need to get a far better utilisation of our current number of beds. This is one issue. We need more step-down beds for the elderly and for people who have finished their acute care and are required to be discharged to a suitable setting. We do not have enough of those beds and that is...

Programme for Government. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I am dealing with the problems of the past few years, I am not talking about what happened in previous years.

Programme for Government. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Those step-down beds are crucial and we have hired them from the private sector because they are not available in the public system. Last year the Tánaiste announced that 1,000 beds in acute hospitals that are designated private will be redesignated as public beds to improve the flow of public patients in our hospitals. These are just some of the issues concerning beds but there is a whole...

Programme for Government. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Deputy Naughten will acknowledge that the Government was right to fight for balanced regional development. He will recall it was not a popular issue when I fought for the division of the country into two regions to obtain greater resources for the Border, midland and western regions.

Programme for Government. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: There is now, but there was not at that time. Deputy Naughten will be glad that those regions have done better than the eastern and southern regions, according to all analyses, in terms of employment, investment and other areas. Hopefully, in the period of the next national development plan, we can maintain those improvements by giving positive incentives through grant aid and greater...

Leaders' Questions. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: As I said earlier on Question Time, last night's programme showed the distress of patients and their families and the conditions and waiting times in some of our accident and emergency departments. That is an issue I have addressed in the House several times over the winter. We understand the distress. That is why the Health Service Executive is determined to reduce unacceptably long waiting...

Leaders' Questions. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I am not sure how Opposition Deputies call a move from €4 billion to €12 billion a cutback. That is extremely good mathematics.

Leaders' Questions. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: We have tackled reducing hospital stays, appropriate use of capabilities, beds and facilities, proactive admission and discharge planning, the diagnostics available over extended working days, the consultants providing daily and routine rounds for all patients, the provision of more consultants and working teams and hospital out-reach services.

Leaders' Questions. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Nevertheless, that is how we will get on top of it. There are more than 2,000 consultants, 4,000 non-consultant hospital doctors, 7,000 extra nurses and 7,000 extra paramedics, all working to get on top of the one aspect of the health services which we must deal with.

Leaders' Questions. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: As Deputy Kenny knows, the GP out-of-hours service is excellent in many parts of the country. Until recently, we were not able to resolve the service in a large part of Dublin, covering about half a million patients. Thankfully, those negotiating that issue have now concluded an agreement which will become operational from 1 September. That has been publicly announced. That coverage is very...

Leaders' Questions. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: This is a serious issue which we are all trying to resolve. The Deputy should not be so silly.

Leaders' Questions. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The step-down facilities provide continuing care. With regard to the report mentioned by Deputy Kenny, no report like that was done before. This was a detailed report on ten individual hospitals. Until now they were always classified in statistics that were grouped together and did not look at the individual requirements. This is the first time a report has examined the individual...

Leaders' Questions. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I am not sure what interview I gave that could give rise to all those questions.

Leaders' Questions. (16 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: A total of 10,600 civil servants have applied to the central applications facility to relocate. The central applications facility continues to receive new applications every week. It is anticipated interest will increase further as buildings are built and timetables firm up. With regard to property, site acquisition negotiations have been completed in 13 locations, contracts have been...