Results 14,841-14,860 of 46,014 for speaker:Simon Harris

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: We got there in the end.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: I acknowledge there are particular issues in the mid-west area and I will meet the Limerick hospital group tomorrow to discuss some of those issues. Deputy Kelly raises the issue of ambulances with me on a regular basis. Additional funding of €3.6 million has been made available to the national ambulance service, NAS, this year. It is responsible for 1,700 staff, 490 vehicles and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: There has been an increase and I will provide a specific note to the Deputy in relation to how the additional €3.6 million has been spent. Something different is being tried in terms of this year's winter initiative and it is time that is done. A bottom-up approach is being taken. There have been too many winter initiatives, possibly including what I implemented last year, where...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: I need to be very careful not to pre-empt the outcome there-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: -----because there is a legal situation. However, I am happy to keep in touch with the Deputy on the matter. I am very well aware of it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: I am aware of it and of the potentially significant consequences as well. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of orphan drugs, because we need to have a serious conversation on this. On Topical Issue debates, I am constantly asked if I am going to make this or that drug available. This is despite the fact that the Dáil passed legislation in 2013 which gave all control in this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: I agree that the entire process was extraordinarily unedifying. This kind of back-and-forth spat is not the way that things should happen. I do not agree that there has been a delay in terms of the provision of funding between July and 1 November next, the date on which these drugs will be available. I can reassure the Deputy that this is not the cause of the delay and that there is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: There is a real need to examine this matter. We have already had the very high-profile situation with Orkambi this year. Patients felt the need to mount a very public and visible campaign and, in many ways, perhaps they were right to do so. However, it placed the State in a situation where the drug companies became emboldened. That is not any criticism of the patients. I do not believe...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: Deputy Murphy O'Mahony asked about home help hours, and I hope I answered that when replying to Deputy Kelly's question. I was pleased to hear Deputy Murphy O'Mahony talk about advice and prevention. We often discuss what to do when someone gets sick but we very rarely talk about what we are going to do to keep them well. I will be launching the Healthy Ireland fund in the coming days....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: Nor does my Department.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: There are 2,000 fewer people on the waiting lists.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: I take the Deputy's point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: I will begin by responding to Deputy Louise O'Reilly. I would be interested in following up on Deputy O'Reilly's point about home help and the not-for-profit sector. She has had to leave for understandable reasons but I undertake to do that and engage further with her on that and make my Department officials available to her to further pursue it. We will ask the HSE to revert to her with a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: In the interim, yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: That is right.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: That is right, and I am sure no-one wants to see HIQA regulating somebody's mother's sitting room as if it were a nursing home. There is a balance between appropriate regulation for the home setting, which is, presumably - I am a layperson where this is a concerned - significantly different to the degree of regulation provided in a hospital or nursing home setting. We will endeavour, in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: That is still absolutely-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: He has worked extraordinarily hard and shown much leadership on it, as have many people. I know it has been a long time coming. The Taoiseach's commitment regarding the end of the year is one that we are all working towards. We will keep in touch about that. I do not want, for the reasons the Senator outlined, to personalise this in the context of any one decision made in the health...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: I do not disagree with the Senator. As he knows, while the Minister of State cannot be physically based in every Department, he is assigned to three. That is an initial reflection of the reality whereby there is a health need. However, that need often arises in areas in which it was not met earlier. It may not have been met as early as preschool, at an early intervention stage or it could...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Simon Harris: I thank the Chairman for his questions. I reiterate the point on the primary care budget, amounting to more than €1 billion per year, which is seeing a shortfall for this point in the year of €7.7 million. It is my expectation and that of the HSE that the full primary care budget will be expended this year. I reassure the committee in that respect. I very much take the...