Results 23,161-23,180 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Health: Appointments to State Boards Data (2 Feb 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The nomination and appointment process for boards of bodies under the aegis of my Department is set out in legislation. In line with Government Decision S180/20/10/1617 of 2014 and Guidelines set out by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform relating to the advertising for expressions of interest in vacancies on State Boards, my Department in conjunction with the Public Appointments...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointment Delays (2 Feb 2016)

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 National...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointment Status (2 Feb 2016)

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...

Topical Issue Debate: Medicinal Products Availability (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Deputy will appreciate that I am not in a position to comment on the case of any individual patient, even where some personal details are already in the public domain. I have no access to patient records and am not permitted, by law, to make decisions about individual cases. Soliris, or eculizumab, is an ultra-orphan medicine manufactured...

Topical Issue Debate: Medicinal Products Availability (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I am advised that eculizumab has been used to treat a small number of Degos patients in highly experimental trials in the US. The results of these trials have been inconclusive, with some patients showing signs of improvement, some getting worse, and one patient dying while receiving treatment. There is no strong clinical evidence or research to support the use of this medicine for the...

Topical Issue Debate: Hospitals Funding (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputies for raising this issue. I am taking the debate on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, who is unavailable. Public residential care units are a significant and crucial part of our services for older people. They provide more than 5,000 long-stay beds, amounting to approximately 20% of the total stock of nursing home beds nationally. The standard of care...

Topical Issue Debate: Hospitals Funding (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: It is important to acknowledge that the Donegal model of having a large number of community hospitals in the county, with relatively well developed home-care and home help services, is a good model for the rest of the country. In addition to the ten beds provided in Letterkenny hospital, the model has helped us and is one of the factors which have allowed Letterkenny and Donegal to perform...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The joint committee is being asked to consider motions that both Houses of the Oireachtas approve the draft regulations to protect the title of "optician" by confining its use to registrants of the register of optometrists. These regulations are consequential to the transfer of the regulation of the professions of optometrists and dispensing opticians from the Opticians Act 1956 to the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Essentially, what this proposal does is create clarity as to what the different professions do. The dispensing optician is the person who dispenses a person's glasses, whereas an optician, which is a variant of the term "optometrist", is the person who carries out eye examinations and produces prescriptions, which use figures such as -1.00 or -4.50 to indicate whether dioptres of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: It is very confusing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: We will try not to talk about ophthalmologists and ophthalmic opticians while we are at it as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I think the Deputy is right. Up to recently, the only professions that were in any way regulated were doctors and nurses, and now we are working our way down through other professions. One area that we have committed to regulate, which will be very complicated, is that of counsellors and psychotherapists, but in the period of the next Government we will be looking at other professions, and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Will I be a Deputy? I do not know. I am at the mercy of the public, just as the Deputy is.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: To be honest, I do not think any Department confers recognition on bodies. It is not that we say, "We recognise this group and we do not recognise that group."

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: They can do that. They do not need Government approval to do so.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the members of the committee, the Chairman, and the staff of the committee for all the work done in the last couple of years. I know some of the hearings have been robust - as they should be - but, particularly when it came to legislation, the committee fulfilled its legislative role very well in terms of both scrutinising and enhancing legislation. I hope the various constituents...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Alcohol Pricing (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Government approved the publication of the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill and the introduction of the Bill in the Houses of the Oireachtas on the 8th December 2015. The Bill completed Second Stage in the Seanad on the 17th December 2015. The Public Health (Alcohol) Bill will make it illegal to sell or advertise for sale alcohol at a price below a set minimum price. Minimum Unit...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Accommodation Provision (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 231 and 288 together. As I stated in my reply of 13 January 2016 it is expected that the project will be offered for tender in early 2016. The position has not changed. The HSE has submitted its draft Capital Plan for the multi-annual period 2016-2021. This is being reviewed. It requires my approval together with the consent of the Minister for Public...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Tobacco Control Measures (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 232 and 234 together. Member states must transpose the mandatory requirements under the Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU) into national legislation by 20 May 2016. Within a number of those mandatory requirements, Member States may determine certain discretionary elements. The Department recently undertook a public consultation seeking views on those...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Tobacco Control Measures (28 Jan 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Department of Health, in pursuing the recommendations of Tobacco Free Ireland requested the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) to carry out a health technology assessment (HTA) of smoking cessation interventions. By conducting this HTA, HIQA will be in a position to provide impartial, expert advice on the value (clinical and economic) of a range of smoking cessation therapies...