Results 1,241-1,260 of 4,810 for speaker:Liam Twomey

Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (28 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: The Medical Council would have agreed with many aspects of the competence assurance proposals, as regards specialist and general registration, because so much of this is important. Did it also agree there should be strong ministerial control over policy and direction and see this as a positive issue, or did it have concerns as regards the removal of the council's independence to such a...

Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (28 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: I move amendment No. 19: In page 25, lines 25 and 26, to delete all words from and including "the" where it firstly occurs in line 25 down to and including "and" in line 26 and substitute the following: "a proportion of the members of the Council shall be appointed by the Minister, a proportion shall be appointed through election by the bodies regulated by the Medical Council, and the...

Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (28 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: I am sure the Minister's doctor friends could explain that doctors might feel disconnected from the Medical Council as envisaged. Doctors had an affinity with the Medical Council. A doctor felt a complaint against him or her was being examined by his or her peers. This affinity could disappear if the council is appointed solely by the Minister. One way of maintaining its independence is...

Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (28 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: Deputy McManus's point is far more important than the Minister may realise. The chief executive officer of the HSE is covered by codes of conduct and by the ethics in public office legislation but his advisers are not, even though they would have as much say and as much authority in the way policies are formulated because of their expertise which is also the reason they are acting as his...

Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (28 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: They are not covered by the more significant ethics in public office legislation.

Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (28 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: How recent is it?

Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (28 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: If the heating is turned up it will increase the House's carbon footprint.

Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (28 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: I move amendment No. 70: In page 80, to delete lines 29 and 30 and substitute the following: "94.—(1) The Health Service Executive and the registered medical practitioner shall ensure that practitioner's professional competence is maintained on an ongoing basis.". The problem here is resourcing the competence assurance. The Minister has stated she has given a commitment that the resourcing...

Hospitals Building Programme. (29 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: Question 1: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the status of her co-location project to have private hospitals on the grounds of public hospitals; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12265/07]

Hospitals Building Programme. (29 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: It has been two and a half years since I first stood here facing the Minister in my role as Fine Gael spokesperson on health and children and today will probably be my last day in the present Dáil standing facing her in this role.

Hospitals Building Programme. (29 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: In the present Dáil, it most definitely will be our last time facing each other on this issue. In case we do not get that opportunity again, I wish her well in the election. As the Minister will be aware, there is outright opposition from my party to the co-location plan. It is a bad plan. I dislike the way the Minister is going about it. She should not sign these contracts unless she...

Hospitals Building Programme. (29 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: What will this cost the private patient in the long term? The private patient will now end up paying not only €268 million which will be transferred to the private sector but, according to Mr. Finn when he was in front of the Joint Committee on Health and Children, probably double that figure. Does the Minister accept that private patients may find their premiums increasing dramatically...

Cancer Screening Programme. (29 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: Question 4: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the status on the roll-out of the cervical cancer screening programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12266/07]

Cancer Screening Programme. (29 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: In 1997 the then Minister for Health decided to set up a cervical screening programme and in 2000 a pilot scheme was introduced in Limerick. Does the Minister accept Irish women are dying at a rate twice the European average from cervical cancer? Our cervical cancer rate is higher than the UK even though when the programme was proposed in 1997 our rate was half that of the UK. Does she...

Cancer Screening Programme. (29 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: It was also introduced in the UK in the 1960s but the programme was reviewed in 1988 to upgrade it.

Cancer Screening Programme. (29 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: On a point of order, I was informed the reason the HSE did not go to tender was there was no capacity in any laboratory in Europe.

Cancer Screening Programme. (29 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: The Minister is almost in agreement with my comments. The Government's commitment to the cervical screening programme is weak. No progress has been made on patient registration and the Minister has no idea how women who need smear tests will be identified. She has acknowledged the HSE has no idea what is the laboratory capacity in this regard. These are two basic issues before one...

Cancer Screening Programme. (29 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: What the Minister stated is amazing. The Minister acknowledges that due to fact the Government has not really put its back behind this, the first women screened under BreastCheck on the east coast will possibly have their third screening before the programme is implemented in the west of Ireland. This is truly dramatic when we see the cancer report published during the week which shows...

Cancer Screening Programme. (29 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: It does not take seven years either.

Cancer Screening Programme. (29 Mar 2007)

Liam Twomey: Somebody took his or her foot off the pedal.