Results 23,581-23,600 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Yes. I do not have access to individual patient information or legal files so I do not know much about many of those cases. However, I do know from one or two cases that the media can report the cases as being ten or 13 or 14 years on the go. Actually the claim itself is not made for years until a child is ten or 11 years of age, which is not reported.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I have a particular view on that. Bear in mind why these cases occur, why they end up in the High Court, why they do not end up in court and why settlements are made out of court - it is because the parents or the patient are alleging medical negligence as the reason they have cerebral palsy, for example. It is a scientific fact that in those cases cerebral palsy is not caused by...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: So far €23 million has been paid out, until the end of November 2015. There are 140 cases remaining to be assessed and paid.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I am not familiar with the details of any of the individual pension cases the Deputy raises and, in any case, I do not have a role in adjudicating on such matters. If the individuals in question were employed by section 38 organisations, they would not be Health Service Executive or departmental employees but employees of another body. To the extent that there is any policy direction to the...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The Chairman raises a fair point. As far as I am aware, €52 million is exactly what the HSE asked for in terms of supplementary expenditure for pensions. If the individuals in question are legally entitled to lump sums, these sums should be paid. I would certainly not like the HSE to roll the payments into next year because every year is tight in health. I would prefer if the...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: This is a particular issue with consultants and single-handed general practitioners who can be extremely difficult to replace if they retire at short notice. The replacement periods are often the genesis of service gaps. The head of primary care, Mr. John Hennessy, has started a specific project with the new community health care organisations, CHOs, to identify general practitioners who...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: It comes under health and well-being. My apologies, I cannot say which subhead it comes under. I must give the Deputy an Alice in Wonderland answer. Once upon a time, when I was a senior house officer in St. James's Hospital, I used to get a pay cheque from what was known as the Western Area Heath Board, an entity that no longer existed at that time. Similarly, the regions referred to...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: While the accounting is done top-down from these health regions that no longer exist, the management of the budget is bottom-up. People receive the money and they budget and spent from the bottom up. It is all put together again at the top and reallocated to the different areas. The roll-out of BreastCheck to women aged 65 to 69 was in the service plan and is in the Estimates, and it has...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: It is. The first cohort of women in the group will have received their invitations and many will have had their mammograms.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: It is happening; however, it is being rolled out over four years. Women aged 65 or 66 will have received invitations during the past few weeks. Women who are now 69 will be 70 or older by the time it gets to them. We can only roll it out at a certain speed, given that we must supply the kit and hire the radiographers and radiologists. It is happening on schedule.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I have the service plan, but it has not yet been signed off by the Government. It needs to go around the Departments. I intend to bring it to the Cabinet next week.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Disability services come under social care and today I am asking people to vote through €48 million for it in the Supplementary Estimates. It is mainly to provide for the additional staff and capital improvement works that had to be provided to meet the HIQA requirements.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I agree. Although some argue the HIQA standards are too high, I disagree. The HIQA standards are about right. However, it takes time to meet them, whether to carry out the capital works required or to hire or train additional staff. Some of the buildings HIQA is criticising have been in use as health care facilities for 200 years, and we cannot replace them all overnight. On disability,...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Obviously, I have contact with some of these service providers, particularly at constituency level. It is more on the administrative side than me but I have overview of it all. I have yet to come across anyone who was bluntly and boldly told in writing to ignore HIQA. What they are supposed to do is agree a plan of action, not just with HIQA but with the funder, which is the HSE. It would...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: On nursing homes and facilities for older people, public ones are better staffed, generally speaking, and have a higher proportion of nurses. It is worth bearing that in mind. In contrast and from a building-standards perspective, private sector nursing homes are generally much newer and in better nick than the public ones, some of which are in old workhouses which date back to the 19th...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: A report arrived just yesterday from the State Claims Agency on that. We have not looked at it yet, but we will.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Very simply, we thought that periodic payment orders would be introduced. Had they come in, the awards of €7 million, €10 million and €13 million would have been divided by 20. We had thought the periodic payments legislation would have been enacted by now but it has not been. It will be, however, in the next few months.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The main certainty it would bring about, which would be good for everyone, would be the implementation of annual payments which can then be reviewed as needs change. There are two sets of oddities. Even though an award may be very high, the person may run out of money or sometimes a person may get a huge award and, very sadly, pass away shortly afterwards leaving a huge amount of money...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Was it €160 million?

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (8 Dec 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I would like to make a correction for the purposes of clarity. I think I mentioned the Mater and Beaumont hospitals earlier under subhead I2. I should have mentioned them under subhead I5. The Genio project and all of that is relatively new. It is the responsibility of the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch. Of course I am aware of it. I think it holds a great deal of potential...