Results 26,661-26,680 of 46,081 for speaker:Simon Harris

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: -----and I would like to be able to answer them. I do not want to be cut off in answering and I do not want to cut off Deputy Connolly in asking the question.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I am sorry. I am just a Member of the House like everybody else.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I cannot comment on the record of the Dáil about any individual's contract or pension entitlement. Such matters are set out in law.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: That may be the Deputy's view of the problem. Obviously, I cannot say that. What I will do - I think I have shown a determination to do so this week - is call it as I see it. I will share every bit of information I have with this House. I will work with the Opposition to establish whatever structures should be established to get to the bottom of this and I expect all officials, including...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: First, I thank Deputy Harty for convening a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health so quickly tomorrow. That is an important forum to have. I was just clarifying the structure there. CervicalCheck reports in to the National Screening Service, which reports into the National Cancer Control Programme which reports, to the best of my knowledge, to the chief clinical officer of the HSE who is...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I can only rely on what I have read so far. Clearly, the clinical director of CervicalCheck was in correspondence with clinicians on what they should or should not do in regard to some of the audits. The clinical director seemed to have a liaison with other clinicians around the country but it is my initial understanding that the review needs to make that clear.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I truthfully cannot. All I can tell the Deputy in regard to the case - the only information I have on it - is the information note that I received on 16 April that I have published. That is the full extent of the information that I have, other than what I have learned, in the same way the Deputy has, in regard to discovery documents and, obviously, the public commentary of Ms Phelan and...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: There are two distinct issues. Deputy Harty, as a doctor, will appreciate there is obviously the fact that any screening programme will always have a number of false negatives and false positives. The issue I am concerned about is when individual women's cases were audited - we should talk about when individual audits of women's screenings was carried out rather than in the sense of a...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I cannot be jury and jury here. The Deputy asked a question as to what a review or an investigation may find. We need an investigation into the breadth of issues regarding our screening programme, and we are going to have one. I think many people acted in good faith at that time. I think many people had different views. From my reading over the last while, and I have been reading a lot...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: Sure.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: That was a very brief question.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I am getting my note on that. I decided to introduce it in February of this year, following on from a Health Insurance and Quality Authority, HIQA, health technology assessment, HTA, which recommended to me that it could reduce the number of false negatives for Irish women.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I do not think how the Deputy has represented the Chief Medical Officer's advice is how I would recall it, but perhaps we can pursue that some other time. We in the Department of Health and, more importantly, the Government - as indicated in the programme for Government - are fully committed to the introduction of mandatory open disclosure. I have already acknowledged that the Deputy has...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: This is an important area on which my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, and I are working together. We have already taken a number of steps, including, with the Minister and his Department, the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015, which provides for the use of pre-action protocols in clinical negligence actions, the Mediation Act 2017, which promotes mediation as an efficient...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I appreciate the constructive and reasonable approach the Deputy has taken to the HIQA inquiry. We all want to get to the answers quickly but we also want to make sure that we have a mechanism that can get to all the answers and the full ambit of them. We have had a useful beginning of the teasing out of this tonight. I hope after the meeting of the Joint Committee on Health tomorrow, at...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I am certainly not saying there are no difficulties with anything in this regard. I am factually letting the Members know the information that I have as I have it, in the interests of full disclosure. Regarding that issue, working out the number of other cases, if any, is under way as is looking to see if there are cases that could potentially come down the tracks that we could avoid....

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I am very conscious of not putting information on the record of the Dáil that I cannot stand over. My officials do not seem to have a recollection of any other case similar to this one that has been settled, but I would suggest that we could more wholesomely answer the question with officials at the Joint Committee on Heath. We will have to engage with the State Claims Agency to get...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I am happy to share that with the Deputy.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: It is important. Deputy Boyd Barrett agrees with that aspect of it - I do not mean to be antagonistic about it – yet he is saying that the laboratories to which the samples are being sent are inferior. There is a conflict between that statement and agreeing that there is a life-saving programme under which smears are being analysed and which is saving lives.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: No, Deputy Bríd Smith has a problem. I believe she would accept that she has an ideological problem too.