Results 18,541-18,560 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: What I can tell the Deputy is that, regardless of any formal invoking of contracts, the private healthcare sector is working with the HSE now. For example, the HSE is working with some of the providers on some of the priority areas that I just outlined to the Deputy. 9 o’clock The Deputy will be aware that a safety net agreement was put in place for Covid which can also be...

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I can get the Deputy a more detailed briefing if it is useful. There are a lot of people involved, the HSE operations people, clinical leads, the HSE IT teams and partners, that is, some of the cybersecurity firms mentioned earlier, some security experts from Ireland, from various firms - there is a sort of war room which has HSE clinical and a wide variety of technical and cyber experts.

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I will start by thanking colleagues across the House for their time this evening and for their input, questions and proposals. It is very galling that our public healthcare system and our patients, some of the most vulnerable people in the country, are the victims of this vicious criminal attack. It is a despicable attack which shows scant regard for human health or human life. I...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (24 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I welcome the opportunity to present the Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021 to the House. The purpose of the Bill is to extend the period of application of certain emergency provisions that have been critical to the Government's response to the pandemic. The emergency provisions that are to be extended are in the Health (Preservation and Protection and other...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (24 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Acting Chairperson for that. I thank colleagues very sincerely for their contributions, ideas and challenges which are essential. It is fair to say that none of us want this Bill. This is a deeply unwelcome Bill. I remember sitting almost exactly where Senator McDowell is right now, when I was debating this Bill with the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, and I described...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (24 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I apologise for going over time. I want to share my colleagues’ support for the vaccine programme. The credit for the vaccine programme goes to the thousands and thousands of women and men all over our country, in every one of our counties and every constituency, who have gone in, seven days a week, and worked very long shifts. In record time, they have put together a national...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank colleagues for their contributions, both at yesterday's session and today. Essentially the debate we are having now deals with nearly all the amendments. There are amendments at the end dealing with reporting, but essentially there are groups of amendments proposing the same thing with the four different Acts we are seeking to extend. I had nothing to do with ordering the business...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: That is up to the Leas-Chathaoirleach.

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: With regard to keeping Parliament informed, I respectfully disagree with the Senator. There has been a lot of debate. Perhaps there should have been more in the Seanad. As I said, I am open to such debates, although the Seanad orders its own business. I have sat in this room week after week for sessions of questions and answers. There has been a lot of parliamentary debate. With regard...

Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Second Stage (26 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Second Stage (26 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I welcome the opportunity to present the Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021 to the House. The purpose of this Bill is to extend the period of application of certain emergency provisions that have been key to providing for the Government's public health response to the pandemic. The emergency provisions that are to be extended are in the Health (Preservation and...

Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Second Stage (26 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: In an effort to be helpful, the Acting Chairman can tell the Deputy that what I have been doing for the past few hours is taking pages and pages of notes from all contributions. While Deputy Connolly was speaking I was trying to-----

Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Second Stage (26 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: -----take notes of what she said. That is what I have been doing for the past several hours.

Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Second Stage (26 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The Deputy is welcome to take a look at them. With respect-----

Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out: Statements (27 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I welcome the opportunity to update the House on our Covid-19 vaccination programme. The programme has continued uninterrupted since our last session despite the cyberattack on both the HSE and the Department of Health, although this criminal attack on our IT systems has had an impact on the programme, as the validation of data and daily reporting of vaccination figures have not been...

Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out: Statements (27 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: With regard to the Government target, as the Deputy will be aware, I have consistently said our target is getting the vaccines out as quickly as they arrive. The latest data I have show over 96% of vaccines are being administered within seven days of arriving in the country. I would reframe the Deputy's question to ask whether sufficient supply is going to have arrived here by the end of...

Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out: Statements (27 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Absolutely, I will give the Deputy the latest figures I got this morning. On the target, Deputy Cullinane, the others in this Chamber and I have had this conversation week after week for months and months. Members of the Oireachtas have quite rightly said they want the forecasts and we have tried to provide them but as the Deputy will be aware, we have always done so with the heavy caveat...

Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out: Statements (27 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for raising this with me. On the situation whereby the medical cards cannot be updated right now, I am discussing it with the Department and we will discuss it with the HSE. My position is that essentially, anyone who has a medical card that needs to be renewed should not have services cut off. We need to roll that access through until they have them renewed. We cannot...

Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out: Statements (27 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: -----is that anyone who is approached by someone who looks to have data they should not is not to engage but immediately to contact the Garda at the local station in the first instance and then through the confidential line on 1800 666 111.

Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out: Statements (27 May 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for his questions. I am aware that there was some frustration in Meath and, quite frankly, it was taking longer to access the vaccine in Meath than it was in other parts of the country, which we do not want. The Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, and I, along with others from the area, have had detailed discussions on the matter. I raised the issue with the...