Results 26,141-26,160 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: That is in the detail of the legislation and the regulations. I would be interested in seeing the suggestions the committee will make in its report on how to deal with this issue. I personally think that requiring a brick wall and a separate till is too onerous, particularly for very small shops, but one does not want to make rubbish of the new provisions. The current retail code is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The important principle is that alcohol should not be on display as if it were a normal product such as fruit-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: -----and one should not be walking through and past it. It should not be behind the till. What really bothers me is the display of alcohol right behind the till in the small stores around town. One sees the vodka and one starts to think about buying it, but obviously I never do.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: To deal with the point raised by Deputy Ó Caoláin, the only purpose and intention behind this Bill is one of public health. I might ask the chief medical officer to comment on this, because he would be able to put across the research better that I would. My understanding is that it is not only an issue of visibility, but the research does show that the low-income groups spend a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I do not know.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: On the issue of structural separation, we need to work it out. We will work it out in consultation with retailers as to how it can best be done without imposing enormous capital costs on them. It needs to be done for real. It has to result in reduced visibility and reduced availability, with alcohol perhaps being kept behind a screen or in cabinets. There are many ways in which it could...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: General Scheme of Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Yes. We actually met yesterday at the Alcohol Forum.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: As this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and my officials will follow the matter up.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medicinal Products Availability (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: An Expert Group, set up by my Department in 2006, examined the regulatory framework required to facilitate the prescribing, dispensing and supply of buprenorphine/naloxone and buprenorphine-only products as alternatives to methadone. In 2011, this Group concluded that methadone is the drug of first choice in the treatment of opioid dependency, but that buprenorphine/naloxone may be more...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Cancer Screening Programmes (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy's question relates to service delivery matters and accordingly I have asked the HSE to respond directly to him. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Services (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: As the delivery of infrastructure projects and staffing are matters for the Health Service Executive your question has been referred to the Executive for direct reply. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office who will follow up.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Services (23 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: As this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and my officials will follow the matter up.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointment Status (23 Apr 2015)

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...

Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Before I start, I extend a very special welcome to Mr. Mark McQuillan, who is job shadowing me today as part of a programme of the Irish Association of Supported Employment. He is in the Visitors' Gallery. I thank Deputies for their contributions on the Bill. As Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, said in her opening statement on the Bill, the Government is committed to...

Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2015: Referral to Select Committee (22 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I move:That the Bill be referred to the Select Sub-Committee on Health pursuant to Standing Orders 82A(3)(a) and (6)(a) and 126(1).

Topical Issue Debate: Mental Health Services Provision (22 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Needless to say, I was not able to get a briefing on the issue that he raised with about three minutes notice. I think it is rather opportunistic to raise issues in that way.

Topical Issue Debate: Mental Health Services Provision (22 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: It refers specifically to Galway. With regard to what was mentioned by other Deputies, it is important to bear in mind that the staff who refused to work this morning left the night shift in situ, and they would have been on for 12 hours at that stage.

Topical Issue Debate: Mental Health Services Provision (22 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: That is something that needs to be borne in mind. That is not a course of action that I hope any of us here condone in that the shift already on were left in situ.

Topical Issue Debate: Mental Health Services Provision (22 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: For the information of other Deputies, I have worked in an emergency department. An emergency department is a place where one is at risk of assault and it is a place where staff do get assaulted by violent people and by drunks, and I turned up for work on every occasion that I worked in an emergency department. However, procedures are put in place to minimise risk and deal with assaults...

Topical Issue Debate: Mental Health Services Provision (22 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy cannot submit something with one or two hours notice and then go into detailed questions that were not even mentioned in the question.