Results 11,641-11,660 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Ebola Virus Outbreak (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I will answer that question if the Deputy puts it to me with the others.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Abortion Legislation (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy is aware, Article 40.3.3oof the Irish Constitution states:The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.The interpretation of Article 40.3.3owas considered by the Supreme Court in Attorney General v....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Abortion Legislation (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: There are various accounts in the newspapers of the Y case. The reason I want to wait for the report is that there is information in the newspapers about which I know nothing. Therefore, I want to wait for the report, to see all of the facts and consider them. I do not want to jump to conclusions and I am concerned that people on both extremes of the issue, within a day or two of the case...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Abortion Legislation (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: What the opinion polls show is that a clear majority of the Irish population still do not support abortion on demand or request. I understand that is the Deputy's position. It is one she is-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Abortion Legislation (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: It is a position she is entitled to hold, but it is not the majority view in the State, based on the opinion polls to which she refers. I will give my opinion as a doctor and a young man at a later stage. However, I am Minister for Health and the Government's position is clear - we have no plans to repeal the eighth amendment. It is important to bear in mind that if the eighth emendment...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Groups (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The Government’s decision to establish hospital groups, where small and larger hospitals work together, was informed by two reports, the hospital groups report and the smaller hospitals framework.The hospital groups will provide an optimal configuration of services, with benefits relating to safety, quality, access and cost. Every hospital, large and small, will play a vital role in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Groups (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: When it comes to reorganising services, we must always bear in mind that medicine, best practice and clinical science are always changing. There will never be an end point when it comes to reorganising services and we will always be adapting them. What we need in the health service is not disruptive reform but evolutionary reform, which means more things moving from hospitals to primary...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Groups (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: There will be a job to be done in educating the public and, to a lesser extent, GPs about where patients should go and when. Ideally, an older patient with pneumonia should be referred by his or her GP to a medical admissions unit, if there is one available. He or she should not - at least not during the day - be calling an ambulance to take him or her to an emergency department. The same...

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I am committed to a major agenda of health reform in line with the commitments contained in the programme for Government and our policy statement, Future Health. I want to push ahead as soon as possible with key reforms in areas such as extending GP care without fees on a phased basis, improving the management of chronic diseases, implementing key financial reforms, including the...

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: To be clear, we are not parking UHI; that is not what I said. I spoke about universal health care and universal health insurance. To me, universal health care includes a number of dimensions, for example, access to general practitioners without fees, which will be tax-funded, and access to primary care. It also includes health insurance for everyone across the hospital system, which could...

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is quite incorrect. More people in Ireland have medical cards than ever before and more people have GP visit cards.

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The discretionary medical cards that were withdrawn have been restored to those who lost discretionary medical cards and have a medical illness. What Deputy Kelleher is saying is incorrect. However, he let the cat out of the bag about the Fianna Fáil policy because he said his party is committed to universal health care and wants it to be tax funded. How much will it cost and who will...

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The fact that Deputy Kelleher must interrupt me throughout my response indicates the extent to which he is on the run.

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Kelleher has announced in the House that Fianna Fáil is committed to tax-funded universal health care, which will cost several billion euro. Anyone who can add knows that. How will Fianna Fáil impose the additional several billion euro of taxes on the Irish people?

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Over what limit?

Other Questions: Nursing Education (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The issue raised by the Deputy was the subject of intensive conciliation at the Labour Relations Commission during the summer between the nurses' representative body, the INMO, and the HSE, given that nurses who were due to graduate would have had difficulty in obtaining posts in their preferred locations. Conciliation meetings were held on 6 and 30 June and on 22 July. The conciliation...

Other Questions: Nursing Education (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate the Deputy's interest in this matter, which he has raised with me separately on other occasions. I refer to the industrial relations issue between the HSE and the INMO, which is being dealt with by the LRC and in which I am not involved. There are also issues relating to staff deployment. In my view, one thing the Minister for Health should not do is to attempt to redeploy...

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The HSE is continuing to experience a significant increase in demand for its services, which is reflected in an upward trend reported in waiting lists for July 2014. The success of the outpatient initiative run by the HSE at the end of 2013, and further validation work in 2014, resulted in the facilitation of 33,000 extra outpatient appointments in 2013 and an additional 55,883 such...

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: It is important to point out that even though there has been a significant increase in the number of those waiting more than eight months or a year, 89% of patients are waiting less than 12 months for access to outpatient treatment. The target is not being fully met but we have achieved a level of 89%. There is obviously a deficit in the context of step-down facilities, nursing homes and...

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I quite agree with the Deputy. That there are 700 mostly elderly patients awaiting discharge in hospitals is not only bad for the health service but it is also bad for those individuals because they are more at risk of acquiring an infection in hospital and falls. It is bad all round. It is frustrating that we have been talking about this issue for ten years. It is not something that has...