Results 10,141-10,160 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Constitutional Amendments. (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: My view is that since there are no logical or coherent arguments one could make to a citizen on why we should vote "No", that column should be blank but not everyone would agree with that position. It is to provide information. There has been some consideration and debate around whether this provision should be left in place for all time. We have not taken any decision on that matter but...

Constitutional Amendments. (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The third level students have said that some of their examinations start in the first week of May and continue into the early part of June. The leaving certificate starts on 4 June this year and goes on for all of June but the main bulk of the examinations are finished on 12 June. As the National Parents Council and others said to me, if they continue much longer after that there is the...

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: These reports pertain to the difficulties that have been discussed in the House in recent months. Obviously they are reports into serious problems that must be addressed. If Deputy Kenny is asking me whether I have confidence in the 130,000 people who are trying every day to deliver a health service for a population of 4.2 million in operating theatres and community health settings, who are...

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I do not know whether Deputy Kenny really wants me to talk about the cancer service or about the reports but he has described——

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: No, I will go through that.

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: Your script was to allow me to say two words and then to interrupt.

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: We can deal with the reports of last week, which raises a question. If Deputy Kenny's view is that the HSE is an inefficient bureaucratic monster in which there is no delegation other than from the centre, which has been criticised, and in which there is no delegation to any of the regions, I cannot agree with him. The HSE has a designated manager in every region, through the National...

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: It has a large number of managers.

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: However, there are designated people in the regions and there is a line management structure that perhaps——

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: ——is a system that Deputy Kenny considers to be inferior to the health board system. In this House until January 2005——

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I answered the question about the bureaucratic, out of touch health board systems that were totally unrelated to each other. For a long time, Deputy Kenny made a career of talking about PPARS——

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: ——which tried to bring together the diversity of thousands of grades on differing rates and conditions that grew over the years since 1971.

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: Following that, an attempt was made for the first time in 35 or 40 years to bring a new organisation into being with buy in from all the service's staff, from doctors to nurses and everybody else, and to progress the health reform report we have been implementing. Are there deficiencies in that service? Do problems and weaknesses exist in some areas?

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: Are great things and huge reforms happening through the work we are discussing today regarding Professor Tom Keane and cancer services? Is it not a fact that outstanding work is being done in cardiovascular treatment and that we have had significant successes? The answer to these questions is yes but my job, and that of the Minister, is to try to improve what is good, correct what is bad...

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: It is a matter of making the HSE, which is a large organisation, improve and maintain the health of the people of this country to the best of its ability and with resources of €16 billion and a large staff by international standards. I hope some of the suggestions made by Deputy Kenny about patient focus are correct. I agree with designating to line managers. They are in the structure but...

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The motion for tomorrow's debate reads "to ensure that patients' interests come first in the future management of all such reviews and serious adverse incidents", so patients' interests are included in the motion. I have discussed the reports with my colleagues. We discussed them in the health committee when they were published last Wednesday and have since discussed them further and we have...

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I am not suggesting there are not problems or difficulties because that has been written and reported on. What I am interested in is moving quickly, with Professor Keane and those working with him, to having units of large enough size which are resourced and staffed to do this job better than the fragmented services did. This applies to many other services, although we do not like to listen...

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I wish to deal with two factual points. First, I was not giving my view on the reports; I was quoting from the reports. In what I said about Portlaoise, I did not give the Deputy one line of any view I had. I was giving a report on what Mr. John Fitzgerald said and Ms Ann Doherty did. When the Deputy reads the reports, he will see that is precisely what I am saying.

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: Second, I was speaking in defence of the HSE, not in my defence. These issues in the report are there from 2003. They are not to do with anything I said. I do not accept Deputy Gilmore's position. This was a report into problems in Portlaoise. I have no doubt people in Portlaoise were doing their best but this is the judgment given in the reports that came out. It is not a question of...

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: It is wrong and irresponsible——