Results 27,161-27,180 of 46,575 for speaker:Simon Harris

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.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I accept the concerns Deputy Bríd Smith has raised, the sincerity with which she has raised them and the legitimacy of looking at them. CervicalCheck published information on the company's website tonight as follows:Our cervical screening samples are sent to one of three contracted laboratories. One of these in the US and two are in Ireland. The reason we use a US laboratory is because...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I fully accept that.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I do.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I am willing to stay here as long as it takes. There is no Fine Gael politics here.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: This is a serious issue and I do not intend to engage in a shouting match on it. Deputy Boyd Barrett should note that there are mistakes and errors made in this country and in many different countries. The Deputy has a viewpoint - others agree with him – that sending this screening service or the reading of the smears to the United States was a mistake. Deputy Boyd Barrett has asked...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I think the disclosure of women's health information to women at the earliest possible opportunity would have prevented a great deal of pain, hurt, suffering and worry. I fully agree with that.