Results 25,701-25,720 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Topical Issues: Ambulance Service Provision (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I am not au faitwith the details of the staffing arrangements for that particular ambulance base and those matters are dealt with by the director of the national ambulance service and his team. Under the Haddington Road agreement, any public servant can be redeployed to a new site within 40 km of a previous base. Those rules apply to all public servants and it certainly would not be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Opportunities to Enhance Health Service Provision through North-South Co-operation: Minister for Health (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the committee for inviting me here this morning to discuss opportunities to enhance health service provision through North-South co-operation. At the North-South Ministerial Council, NSMC, health and food safety sectoral meeting in Altnagelvin last month, I said that cross-Border co-operation on health was one of the unsung successes of the Good Friday Agreement. There are several...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Opportunities to Enhance Health Service Provision through North-South Co-operation: Minister for Health (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: That is 12 questions. If I speak for four minutes on each, it will be a 48-minute answer, which I do not imagine the Chairman wants.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Opportunities to Enhance Health Service Provision through North-South Co-operation: Minister for Health (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I will not be able to answer them comprehensively, obviously, but-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Opportunities to Enhance Health Service Provision through North-South Co-operation: Minister for Health (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I will do my best. There are many questions and to give comprehensive answers to all of them would take up the rest of the meeting, so I will not do that. The Chairman asked about an overarching strategic framework. The North-South Ministerial Council is designed to do that and has identified areas of specific co-operation, namely, accident and emergency services, planning for major...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Opportunities to Enhance Health Service Provision through North-South Co-operation: Minister for Health (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I have done that. I actually launched it. The healthy club project is very encouraging. On the common register for medical professionals and other professionals, that would be extremely difficult. If we were to have common registration in Ireland and Northern Ireland, all the legislation would first have to be aligned just for doctors, then for nurses, dentists and 14 other professions....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Opportunities to Enhance Health Service Provision through North-South Co-operation: Minister for Health (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I will have to come back to the committee on the questions of orthodontics, oral surgery and oronasal surgery. I just do not have enough detail on those matters to hand. In orthodontics, it is intended to do some outsourcing to the private sector towards the end of the year to try to reduce the waiting lists, particularly for surgery. Some of that is done in the Beacon Hospital already....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Opportunities to Enhance Health Service Provision through North-South Co-operation: Minister for Health (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: On the issue of alcohol abuse, I do not want to get into the arguments about sport sponsorship. They have been well rehearsed in other committees and the public domain and the committee knows where we are going on the issue. We will not ban sponsorship outright, but we will regulate and restrict it and ensure the regulations in law can be enforced because, to be frank, the current codes of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Opportunities to Enhance Health Service Provision through North-South Co-operation: Minister for Health (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: If the post cannot be filled, perhaps we could examine doing something in the North if there is capacity there. I add my congratulations to Mr. Mickey Brady, MP, MLA, on his recent election to Parliament. All statistics show an association between low income and ill health which is very much linked to lifestyle including higher rates of smoking, alcohol consumption and obesity and much...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Opportunities to Enhance Health Service Provision through North-South Co-operation: Minister for Health (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Although I am not aware of any plans about stroke services, I can check it out and reply to the Deputy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Opportunities to Enhance Health Service Provision through North-South Co-operation: Minister for Health (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I did not quite follow what the Deputy said.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Opportunities to Enhance Health Service Provision through North-South Co-operation: Minister for Health (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Is this-----

Other Questions: Health Services Reports (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Each review team comprises a chairperson and three other members. I have the names but I am not sure whether it is appropriate to divulge the names of individuals who are participating in confidential reviews.

Other Questions: Health Services Reports (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I will have to get advice on whether it is appropriate to share the names.

Other Questions: Health Services Reports (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I will.

Other Questions: Health Services Reports (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: If the Minister for Justice and Equality was asked to divulge the names of jury members currently hearing a trial, I do not think that would be appropriate.

Other Questions: Health Services Reports (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Without consulting on the matter I would prefer not to provide the names of individuals participating in a review. I hope the Deputy understands why. In regard to the fourth case, the review team has not yet been established. We have been in contact with the hospital to impress on it the importance of beginning that review expeditiously. I agree with the Deputy that individual case...

Other Questions: Health Services Reports (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I agree with the Deputy that it is important individual case reviews are carried out expeditiously, provided they are also done properly and thoroughly. Sometimes that can take time but the fact that they can continue for several months and, in some cases, more than a year is difficult for the patients and families concerned. They want to find out what happened and to be assured it will not...

Other Questions: Surgical Symphysiotomy Payment Scheme (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The surgical symphysiotomy payment scheme commenced on 10 November 2014. It was originally estimated that 350 women would apply to the scheme but 576 applications were accepted. Applications are being assessed by the former High Court justice, Maureen Harding Clark. The scheme has in the region of €34 million available and participants will receive awards at three levels, namely,...

Other Questions: Surgical Symphysiotomy Payment Scheme (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The UN committee is free to offer its opinion on any matter it considers relevant but in this country we are ruled by our laws and justice is administered by the courts. We are an independent sovereign State. It is up to the women individually to decide whether to apply for the scheme and to accept the award. The vast majority have accepted their awards. They do not have to prove...