Results 8,881-8,900 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Task Force on Active Citizenship. (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: There are many ways in which people can be encouraged to become involved. I share the Deputy's views on An Bord Pleanála's oral hearings. The engagement of local authorities is very important but in fairness to them they have moved into regional and local offices and decentralised their staff, and that has helped. The system is far better now than it was ten or 20 years ago when...

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The HSE has apologised to all of the women involved for the delay in diagnosis. Everyone is concerned about these eight women and it is important that the requisite treatment and counselling services have been put in place in respect of them. The Minister for Health and Children was informed on 29 August last that following concerns raised by the relevant staff, the HSE had established a...

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I do not wish to discuss why somebody is on administrative leave. I will, however, outline to the Deputy the advice I received. I am informed that there was no systems failure involved. When the recruitment process took place, one person applied for the post. That individual was taken on to fill the position but is now on administrative leave. Those who run the 35 hospitals to which I...

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The Deputies should please not interrupt me. Nobody interrupted Deputy Kenny.

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Last week, people in the House stated that we should have all of these centres.

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: People should cop on. If individuals want to politicise this matter, we can do so.

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We have taken on 70 additional consultants in this area. We need to maximise investment in state-of-the-art facilities, with full multidisciplinary teams. Professor Keane is due to take up his post on 19 November. He is expected to quickly designate national clinical leaders in the areas of radiation, surgical and medical oncology. Arrangements are in hand to enable him to take control of...

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Those guidelines were set out——

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I do not have time to set it out in one minute. It was all published last year and Deputies can look at it. What we should do in this House is try to make the necessary reforms to ensure these issues do not happen. The best way to do so is to make sure we have state-of-the-art, well-organised and well-focused multidisciplinary teams in a limited number of locations where we can give people...

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I will try to answer most of those questions. I understand it was around 29 August, or perhaps a week before.

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Yes.

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: On 29 August.

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The reason was that one of the senior consultants had concerns about the diagnoses and as I understand it — I want to be fair to people and due process — the mammograms being read by one consultant showed different results to another consultant's reading of them. As I stated, a consultant is on administrative leave because of this. Consultant Ann O'Doherty of St. Vincent's Hospital and...

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Every unit of the health service in the country looks for additional modern technology every day of the week. I am not denying that. We cannot provide it everywhere.

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We need to provide them in centres of excellence where we have multidisciplinary teams. Let us be frank about it, when one is ill one wants the best service and the best teams and it is not about where one has it. That is what we should be moving to in this country.

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: As I understand it, the hospital in Portlaoise was not to be the centre.

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I am doing my best to answer questions. I have been given quite a lot of facts on this but I think it is best that those facts are put into a detailed report by the consultant, Ann O'Doherty, who is an eminent person and that is fair to everybody. She is actively engaged in putting that report together.

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: On the final question, it was a decision of the section of the HSE which appoints consultants. I presume it is pending Ann O'Doherty's inquiry. The 70 consultants taken on in recent years are all in place as are their departments. The problem is that they are too scattered. The Deputy is correct that the provision of centres of excellence has not worked and we are all aware of why that is...

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Please.

Leaders' Questions (6 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: At present, it is being rolled out in counties Cork, Galway and Roscommon. We have provided additional funding this year, as we did over the past number of years, so the national cancer screening service can meet its additional costs. The full complement of 111 staff for the roll-out has been approved and the Minister has made almost €30 million available this year for capital funding....