Results 26,801-26,820 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The only promise I will make is to work night and day and do everything I can to improve our public services and make insurance affordable for more people. The Deputy mentioned specifically the issue of consultants. One thing I have achieved in office is an agreement on pay scales for new consultants. Over 30 new posts have already been advertised. I am in the same boat as the Minister of...

Other Questions: Drugs-related Deaths (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Drug-related deaths are a human tragedy for the families and friends of the people involved and have a considerable impact on communities and society as a whole. While there are no easy solutions to addressing the problem, the Government is committed to stepping up the effort to reduce the number of drug-related deaths. The latest annual figures from the national drug-related deaths index...

Other Questions: Drugs-related Deaths (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The objective is to reduce the number of drug deaths. At least for the years for which we have the most recent figures, the number of drug deaths has decreased slightly. There will be two developments this year that I hope will improve circumstances. First is the naloxone project, which is to make naloxone available to users, their families, friends and those who work with them to reverse...

Other Questions: Drugs-related Deaths (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Long-term methadone maintenance may be the best option for some people. It is certainly not the best option for everyone, and that is why we are increasing the number of detoxification beds this year. We will certainly consider all these issues in the context of the next national drugs strategy. I very much welcome the Deputy's input into that. On the specific question on the naloxone...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The Senator did not hold me up, as I have just come from the Dáil. I am the full-time parliamentary spokesperson for the HSE on Wednesday, so I will return to the Dáil and the Seanad at least once more today.

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Senator for raising this matter. As he may be aware, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, NMBI, voted on 17 September 2014 to increase the annual retention fee of each registered nurse or midwife to €150 from €100. The annual retention fee in 2013 was €88. The registration fee is set by the NMBI, which is a self-funding organisation. I recognise...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The Senator knows this but it is important to put on the record that the main service the nursing and midwifery board provides is to the public and to patients. It is not there to service the interests of nurses and midwives per se, nor is it a trade union or staff association. It exists to protect patients and ensure fitness to practise. It hears complaints, such as those against the...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I agree that the board also has a role in advocacy and it is not only concerned with fitness to practise One of the aspects of the legislation I am about to commence deals with exactly that subject, namely, competence assurance. There is, however, a cost associated with that and the cost will have to be met.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I support the Government amendment and oppose the motion. Senators Thomas Bryne and Marc MacSharry asked about the actions that had been taken. It is possible to explain what is going on, analyse it and act at the same time. Fianna Fáil Members may, however, find it impossible to explain, analyse and act at the same time, but there are those of us on this side of the House who do not...

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: There is great variation among the hospitals. There are four hospitals in which nobody is waiting for more than nine hours on a trolley. They are St. James’s, Kerry, Navan and Cavan. There are others hospitals in which there is very severe overcrowding, such as Beaumont Hospital where more than 24 patients have been on trolleys for more than nine hours and there is a similar...

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: It requires much more than that. The reasons for overcrowding vary. Some hospitals put it down to problems with delayed discharges, others to a difficulty recruiting and retaining senior medical staff or a lack of acute beds. Experience has taught us that it is not just a matter of delayed discharges, staffing or skill levels, hospital avoidance, patient flow, overall management or...

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The target remains but I need to be very frank about this. There are a few sub-specialties where it is going to be very difficult. It is not just a matter of money in those cases, but one of specialists and theatre time.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The 20-week target remains. Hospitals must adhere to chronological scheduling and observation of guidelines drawn up by the national clinical programmes as well as improving efficiency in the management of referrals and reducing the number of unnecessary return appointments. Rather than the current situation whereby a consultant or his or her staff sees one new patient for every 2.6 repeat...

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: However, now Fianna Fáil says it is underfunded. It certainly did not think so last year. It shows how much things can change dynamically. I accept that Deputy Micheál Martin did some very good work with the smoking ban as Minister for Health, but it is difficult to take some of the shrill criticisms he makes sometimes given that he should know how difficult health is. Of...

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Since December, we have done everything possible to alleviate the current problems in health. More than 1,000 beds have been reopened or freed up but the demand for health care created by our rising and aging population means that the service is still struggling to meet that demand. While the actions we have taken may have alleviated the pressure temporarily, they are not a sustainable or...

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Emergency department, ED, overcrowding and eliminating very long waits for inpatient, outpatient and day case treatment are key priority issues for me and for the Government and I acknowledge the difficulties the current surge in ED activity is causing for patients, their families and the staff who are doing their utmost to provide safe, quality care in very challenging circumstances. All...

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The figure the Deputy gives may also include people waiting a few weeks-----

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: There is a big difference between somebody waiting a few weeks for an appointment or investigation and somebody who is waiting several months. It has been the case for a very long time, including when the Deputy’s party leader as Minister for Health promised to abolish waiting lists in two years and broke that promise, but we can both accept that in Ireland there have been far too...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE Funding (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: We have a realistic budget in place. The Vote for 2015 represents the first increase in funding in seven years and a greater increase than was proposed by the Deputy's party in its alternative budget submission last November. The figures we have for January show spending is in line with projections. In other words, there is no evidence at this stage of any significant overspend. There...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE Funding (25 Feb 2015)

Leo Varadkar: At 8 a.m. this morning there were approximately 420 patients on trolleys across 28 acute hospitals. That number will fall dramatically during the day, as it always does, probably by half. Of course, it is still not acceptable that anybody should be on a trolley for more than nine hours. What was in Dr. Tony O'Connell's letter, which was not addressed to me but to others in the HSE, was...