Results 9,261-9,280 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Order of Business (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The Deputy should put down a question to the Minister. That is how he will obtain a response.

Order of Business (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I will raise that with the Minister. The heads of the Bill have been approved and I understand the legislation will be available this session, but that may be in January.

Order of Business (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The heads of the designated land (housing development) Bill have been approved and the legislation is due next year.

Order of Business (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The first Bill to which the Deputy referred will be introduced next year, as will the electricity (transfer of transmission assets) Bill.

Order of Business (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: That is a matter for discussion by the Whips.

Order of Business (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: That will happen early next year.

Order of Business (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: This important Bill will be published this session.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I want to share time with Deputy Grealish, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Smith, and Deputy Curran.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The suffering of all of the women who have been caught up in the events arising from breast cancer services in Portlaoise, and indeed in other places, has been immense. It did not take graphic accounts of the anxiety, uncertainty, disbelief and anger expressed by a number of the women concerned for the rest of us to understand the enormity of the distress that has been created.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: For that, they deserve the fullest apology. The Minister, Deputy Harney, has already expressed her deep regret that this happened and I readily join with her in expressing my profound regret for what they have gone through.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I want to focus my remarks this evening on two issues in my limited time, namely, the policy response of the Government to the challenge of developing world class cancer services and the issue of accountability for what has gone wrong. In the first place, I am proud of this Government's record in the development of cancer services. We have created a blueprint for the development of a...

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We have listened to the experts and, in the person of Professor Tom Keane, we have drafted in a world class expert to help us to realise our strategy. With particular reference to breast cancer, we are extending the nationalscreening programme, BreastCheck, and we are backing the strategy to create centres of excellence that will organise, plan, deliver and support the treatment of women...

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I want to turn now to the question of accountability for what happened. "Accountability" is a word that can be misused, sometimes deliberately. Fundamentally, it means being required to give an account or an explanation of something that has happened.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: In that sense, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, is accountable and has indeed given an account, both in this House last night and on other occasions and more generally to the public through the media.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: She has given a full account of all of the information at her disposal about what happened——

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: ——but also on the very effective and immediate steps that were taken to respond to the misdiagnosis problem.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The Minister is not the only one accountable. The Health Service Executive, its board and its management are also accountable for their direct management and oversight of the system.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Individual clinicians and health managers are also accountable for the actions they took or did not take.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: In the case of the HSE, they are accountable to the Minister and, thus, to the Government in addition to Dáil Éireann.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Staff of the HSE have their own accountability structures and clinicians are accountable within the framework of regulation of medical practice to their peers, leaving aside any legal liabilities that might arise. A more relevant question than accountability is perhaps responsibility. That means knowing what went wrong, how it went wrong and why it went wrong.