Results 14,181-14,200 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medicinal Products Availability (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: An Expert Group, set up by my Department in 2006, examined the regulatory framework required to facilitate the prescribing, dispensing and supply of buprenorphine/naloxone and buprenorphine-only products as alternatives to methadone. In 2011, this Group concluded that methadone is the drug of first choice in the treatment of opioid dependency, but that buprenorphine/naloxone may be more...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Cancer Screening Programmes (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy's question relates to service delivery matters and accordingly I have asked the HSE to respond directly to him. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Services (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: As the delivery of infrastructure projects and staffing are matters for the Health Service Executive your question has been referred to the Executive for direct reply. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office who will follow up.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Services (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: As this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and my officials will follow the matter up.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointment Status (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual. The scheduling...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Good morning Chairman and members of the committee. I am pleased to be here today to bring these public hearings on the general scheme of a new public health (alcohol) Bill 2015 to a close. Before I start, I would like to remind the committee that at the start of the year the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch and I set out our 25 actions for the year and grouped them around five themes....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Turn it off before getting into the car.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: It is still distracting.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I hope I have jotted down all the questions and I am sorry if I miss any. The analysis of Deputy Ó Caoláin is totally correct. It is 11 litres per person, but that includes the whole population, including the 20% of people who are teetotallers. That brings the average down. We have a higher proportion of teetotallers than other countries. The intention is that the Bill will be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: One potentially could, but it was not agreed. That is the bottom line. Some people assume that minimum unit pricing will result in a revenue boost for the Exchequer. I hope there will not be; I hope minimum unit pricing works to bring down consumption and therefore there is not an increase in revenue. I actually hope the revenue goes down because if we get alcohol consumption down from 11...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I see the Chairman's point. Until recently one of my local clubs was sponsored by a nightclub and it is not unusual for a club to be sponsored by a local bar, so I see the contradiction.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: That is a debate we will have for a long time. I do not get all that upset over seeing President Obama having a pint of Guinness. It is not the pint of Guinness that is causing our problems, but it is the excessive numbers of pint of Guinness.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I get the point. I just wonder if there is a risk of going too far into a nanny state space in some of these things. I will not rubbish the Chairman. This legislation was bandied about Government for three or four years and it was not possible to get agreement on it. We are in year five of the Parliament and I wanted to get good stuff done. As I have said before, and I really mean it,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Senator Burke, may I correct what I said earlier? There are penalties in the Intoxicating Liquor Act; however, there are no enforcement powers. There is nobody who can enforce it, so we could commence it but it could not be enforced, which seems pretty pointless. What would happen is that all the retailers would say they would wait until the new legislation comes through to see what they...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: That is in the detail of the legislation and the regulations. I would be interested in seeing the suggestions the committee will make in its report on how to deal with this issue. I personally think that requiring a brick wall and a separate till is too onerous, particularly for very small shops, but one does not want to make rubbish of the new provisions. The current retail code is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The important principle is that alcohol should not be on display as if it were a normal product such as fruit-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: -----and one should not be walking through and past it. It should not be behind the till. What really bothers me is the display of alcohol right behind the till in the small stores around town. One sees the vodka and one starts to think about buying it, but obviously I never do.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: To deal with the point raised by Deputy Ó Caoláin, the only purpose and intention behind this Bill is one of public health. I might ask the chief medical officer to comment on this, because he would be able to put across the research better that I would. My understanding is that it is not only an issue of visibility, but the research does show that the low-income groups spend a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I do not know.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: On the issue of structural separation, we need to work it out. We will work it out in consultation with retailers as to how it can best be done without imposing enormous capital costs on them. It needs to be done for real. It has to result in reduced visibility and reduced availability, with alcohol perhaps being kept behind a screen or in cabinets. There are many ways in which it could...