Results 12,821-12,840 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: With the benefit of hindsight, I do not think that any of us would have done it the way it was done. Together with the Deputy, I was highly critical of the deal at the time and sought for it to be ended early. I did not think it was the best way to proceed and am firmly and repeatedly on the record to that end. Even at the time, however, I was saying that it was easy for me to say that and...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: My understanding is that there was not any work done on Covid-19. The Covid-19 patients were all brought into the public hospitals and the private hospitals were to try to keep the urgent non-Covid-19 public work going. I may be slightly wrong here but, for example, my understanding is that the public St. Vincent’s University Hospital took over St. Vincent’s Private...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: My understanding is that there was a provision made for potentially extending that contract for longer. It was decided, quite rightly, to end the contract.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: We did not need the capacity and it was the wrong deal.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: It was, but although I am repeating myself, let us just remember the state of fear and anxiety in the country at the time. Our doctors and the Army were setting up tents in car parks of public hospitals. That is where we were at. I agree, I do not think it will be done like that in the future and it is certainly not how we are thinking about doing it if it is needed again, and please God it...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: We do. I wish to apologise because I know that the Deputy was one of the signatories to that Private Members' motion. I received it last Friday and worked on a response to it in the Department over the weekend and I talked to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, about exactly what we could put in place. I put in a lot of work but, unfortunately, I could not attend. I wanted...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: That is all fair. I do not think the HSE would do the same again if put in the same situation. It is obviously easy for all of us to talk about it now. Could or should what the Chairman has just said have happened? Could people have stepped in and said that we need to get the utilisation rates up? Along with the Chairman and Deputy Kenny, I was advocating for exactly that. At the start,...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: I will go through the various questions and the Deputy is free to tell me to stop whenever he wants. The overall question is linked to the community healthcare question of whether Sláintecare is for real. For me, Sláintecare is a roadmap to universal healthcare and having high-quality care when people need it. I am taking this matter deadly seriously and I hope the Deputy can see...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: When the problem is that one cannot get to the consultant for an assessment, the NTPF is of no use.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: To date, part of the fix has been for people to travel by bus to one private hospital in Northern Ireland, which is covered by the cross-border directive. That is not right and not what we should be doing. As part of the access to care thinking for next year, which is the pot of €340 million, these are exactly the kinds of issues that I want to examine. It is a great example.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: In fairness to the HSE, the solution to the question is in a task force that has not done the work yet so the HSE was in no position to do anything. The issue required a policy response and we will work with the HSE on exactly that. In terms of training for GPs, absolutely. Really, it is a conversation that the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science,...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: I will outline one of the places we are putting this. There is a workforce planning team that is doing a flow analysis on all of the different aspects such as how do we get people in, are we training enough people, are we retaining them and so forth. In terms of foreign carers or home care workers and tax reductions, I do not know. I guess it would have to be a conversation between the...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: Yes.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: I am sorry to interrupt the Chairman but I was taking a note. Is that a specific project?
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: Where?
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: I just want to thank the Chairman and the committee. I will get him written notes on the various issues he raised. I spent the past number of years on the committee and anything I and the Department can do to help make the financial information more user-friendly I would be very support of-----
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: Yes.
- Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services (3 Dec 2020)
Stephen Donnelly: As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
- Written Answers — Department of Health: Proposed Legislation (3 Dec 2020)
Stephen Donnelly: As the Deputy will be aware, the Government approved the drafting of a bill on assisted human reproduction (AHR) and associated areas of research based on the published General Scheme of the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill. This comprehensive and far-reaching piece of legislation encompasses the regulation, for the first time in this country, of a wide range of practices, including:...
- Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services Staff (3 Dec 2020)
Stephen Donnelly: An agreement reached at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in October 2018 provided for pay restoration in relation to 50 pilot organisations in the first instance. Pay restoration for these bodies commenced in April 2019 with further payments due in October 2020 and October 2021 as appropriate. The agreement recognised that some of the remaining Section 39 organisations were also...