Results 19,361-19,380 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Written Answers — Department of Health: Vaccination Programme (7 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services (7 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The Report of the Psychology Review Implementation Group in 2017 expanded the care group employment available to counselling and educational psychologists. The report’s recommendation led to the establishment of a Project Team to implement this recommendation. In February 2019, HSE Community Operations convened a Project Team, chaired by Dr Cathal Morgan, comprised of representatives...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Tests (7 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The Government has applied more stringent measures applying to international travel in order to mitigate against the risk of new variants being imported through travel and to protect the progress we are making in suppressing transmission domestically. Under the current travel measures, as provided in S.I. 135/2021, children aged 6 and under are not required to have evidence of a negative...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Pandemic (7 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Covid-19 is a new disease so information on it, its features and its course are still emerging. Scientific and clinical evidence is evolving on the long-term effects of COVID-19. An increasing number of reports and studies are now being published on the topic, however, at present there is no agreement on the definition or the terminology. We do however, know that the clinical course of viral...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointments Status (7 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Equipment (7 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointments Status (7 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services (7 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medical Aids and Appliances (7 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Departmental Staff (7 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: My Department has 670 staff or 650.4 whole-time equivalents as of 31 May 2021. Since May 2020 the Department has undergone a significant reorganisation in order to manage the State’s response to COVID – 19. The organisational structure, and staff increases, in the Department in 2021 is in the context of our Workforce Plan and additional needs relating to the pandemic. The...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Departmental Meetings (7 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The details of meetings that I or my officials have had with representatives of the National Women’s Council of Ireland are noted below. Meetings with Minister Donnelly I have met with the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) on three occasions since January 2020. The details of these meeting are listed below: - 20 November 2020: I met with the NWCI and other external...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medicinal Products (7 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions (13 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to update the House on my Department's processing of parliamentary questions since the cyberattack on 13 May. Parliamentary questions are a core part of how democratically-elected representatives seek information from Ministers on behalf of the people of Ireland. The cyberattack caused severe disruption to my Department's parliamentary question...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Overcrowding (13 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. I acknowledge that our hospital system is facing challenges and has been close to full capacity in recent weeks. It is very important to acknowledge this has caused distress for patients, their families, and of course for our frontline healthcare workers who are working in very challenging conditions. Attendances at emergency...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Overcrowding (13 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. I look forward to seeing the document. Nobody has a monopoly on the solutions to this so I very much look forward to seeing the proposals. To respond directly to the Deputy's question, through the winter plan and this year so far, an additional 834 acute beds have been delivered, with another 229 expected this year. In addition, 73 sub-acute beds have been added with...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Overcrowding (13 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I must say I agree with much of what the Deputy has just said. On building up the acute capacity, it is the biggest expansion in a single year ever to have been attempted, as far as I am aware, and the reports back from the HSE are very positive. On the Deputy's point, there are areas where the planned expansion is not on target, largely because of Covid and the cyberattack, and obviously...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Tests (13 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for her question. In line with the evolving public health policy advice, the HSE has put in place a comprehensive, reliable and responsive testing and tracing operation. Testing and contact tracing continues to be an important element of our response. Our current swabbing capacity is 175,000 tests per week. Demand for testing and tracing is high, as the Deputy will be...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Tests (13 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: We have 930 staff in place. I do not know who is working or the exact hours involved but I can confirm the part in which we are interested, namely, whether contact tracing capacity is operating to its full potential 12 hours per day, seven days per week. The answer to that question is "Yes". We do quite in-depth contact tracing compared with many other countries. We do contact tracing...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Tests (13 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The daily capacity has been significantly increased to 1,600 detected cases per day. The Deputy has raised a very important question, which is, what will happen after 1,600 cases per day are detected? Based on what we are seeing in Scotland and the modelling we have from Professor Philip Nolan's team, we will very likely be looking at more than 1,600 cases per day. There are various...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (13 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for the question. It is fair to say that Covid-19 has had a devastating effect and caused huge difficulty for everyone in Ireland. That is especially true for people in nursing homes and their families, who have suffered huge hardship, as well as staff. The Department of Health is exploring ways to ensure their voices are heard. It must be recognised that the...