Results 26,201-26,220 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Waiting Lists (21 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: Health Insurance Community Rating (21 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Lifetime Community Rating (LCR) is being introduced to encourage people to take out private health insurance at a younger age. Encouraging more people to join the market at younger ages helps spread the costs of older and less healthy people across the market, helping to support affordable premiums for all. The regulations provide for a grace period up until 30 April 2015, during which time...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Waiting Lists (21 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. In relation to the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Assisted Human Reproduction (21 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Currently in Ireland, the provision of assisted human reproduction services remains largely unregulated. On 17 February this year, I received Government approval to draft a General Scheme of legislative provisions dealing with a broad range of aspects relating to assisted human reproduction, including surrogacy and the assignment of parentage in such cases. Under the proposed legislation...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Assisted Human Reproduction (21 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: In February of this year I received Government approval to draft the General Scheme of a Bill for assisted human reproduction, which will include provisions relating to numerous different aspects from the beginning to the end of the assisted human reproduction process. However, I have already stated that it is currently not the case that the public funding of fertility treatments will be...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Facilities (21 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: As of 17 April 2015, there are two 24/7 primary percutaneous intervention (PPCI) centres for Dublin, located in the Mater and St James’s Hospitals. These centres accept all ambulance transfers of patients with ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI). The provision of PPCI from three 24/7 centres in Dublin had proved unsustainable and the decision to consolidate the service into...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Public Sector Pensions Data (21 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: In relation to the part of the question relevant to the HSE, I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on this matter. 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. The information sought in respect of Non-Commercial State Agencies under the aegis of my Department is currently...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Public Sector Pensions Data (21 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: In relation to the part of the question relevant to the HSE, I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on this matter. 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. The information sought in respect of Non-Commercial State Agencies under the aegis of my Department is currently...

Topical Issue Debate: Hospice Services (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue which I know is of great interest to him. I particularly acknowledge his special interest in Galway Hospice and the service it provides. It is the aim of the Government that all people will be provided with the type of palliative care service they need, regardless of what diagnosis they have received, how old they are or whether they die in a...

Topical Issue Debate: Hospice Services (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The matter will be examined and will be examined expeditiously. No one can disagree with the statement that we would all much prefer to see people who are terminally ill looked after in a hospice or their own home. That is much more preferable to them dying in a hospital ward, particularly in a shared room. If something can be done, we will do everything we can to do it. When it comes to...

Topical Issue Debate: Regulation of Health and Social Care Professions (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Dan Neville for raising the issue and giving me an opportunity to update the House on the ongoing programme of regulation of health and social care professionals being undertaken by the Department of Health. The regulation of the 14 professions currently designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005, including the optical professions, is being implemented...

Topical Issue Debate: Regulation of Health and Social Care Professions (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I understand the argument and case that Deputy Neville is making. He is absolutely right that there are a number of very strange people out there advertising their services as psychotherapists, counsellors and all sorts of other things. Not only may they not be very good, they can also do real harm in certain circumstances. If we are going to regulate the professions, we must ensure that...

Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I am very familiar with it; it is about patient safety and quality.

Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The party of which the Deputy is a member did that when it was still in government and before we took office. Of course, he was still in the Labour Party at the time.

Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: No.

Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: No.

Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: This is-----

Other Questions: Hospital Staff Recruitment (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I am a little confused about the point the Deputy is making. She is saying that Connolly Hospital could not recruit agency staff over Christmas because staff were not willing to work over Christmas, so it was not that there was some type of Government edict that they could not do it or that the resources were not there. They just were not able to find agency staff willing to work over...

Other Questions: Hospital Staff Recruitment (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I am not entirely sure what we were supposed to do about that at the time.

Other Questions: Hospital Staff Recruitment (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: As I pointed out in the numbers I gave the Deputy, we are creating proper jobs. We will hire at least 500 additional nurses to proper jobs with proper contracts across the country this year, but that will not get people off trolleys. People are not on trolleys because of the number of nurses. It is to do with admission rates, bed capacity and many other different issues. It is not the...