Results 27,421-27,440 of 46,081 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Health: Departmental Staff Data (28 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005 sets out the legal obligations of public service bodies to: Promote and support the employment of people with disabilities; Comply with any statutory Code of Practice; Meet a target of 3% of employees with disabilities; Report every year on achievement of these obligations. In line with the provisions of the Act, the Department of Health reports on an...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Tobacco Control Measures (28 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 223 and 224 together. The rate of duty to be applied to any tobacco product is a matter for the Department of Finance. In the consideration of the excise treatment to apply to new tobacco products, the Department of Finance consults with my Department in relation to the compliance of those tobacco products with public health tobacco legislation. My...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Beds Data (28 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to you directly as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Cancer Screening Programmes (28 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: I am advised that the contract for a mobile mammography service at Sligo University Hospital, providing follow-up mammography for breast cancer patients post treatment, has been extended recently for a further 12 months. The contract for this service was awarded following a tendering  process run by the HSE.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medical Products (28 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: Medicines containing sodium valproate are approved in Ireland, and the rest of the EU, for the treatment of epilepsy and bipolar disorder. It has been well established that children exposed to valproate in the womb have an increased risk of congenital malformations and neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism. In 2014, following a European Medicines Agency (EMA) review of...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Staff Recruitment (28 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: As this is a service issue, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly.

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: I thank the Seanad for facilitating the change of time. I wanted to be here with Members to take this Bill and to do so in the knowledge of Government decisions in regard to this matter today, which I thought would be useful in terms of informing the debate. I am very pleased to be here to introduce the Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill to the Seanad. I have asked for copies...

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: The main conclusion of the committee's work was that change is needed to extend the grounds for lawful termination of pregnancy in the State. To effect that change, the committee recommended that Article 40.3.3° should be removed from our Constitution. The committee then went on to make recommendations on the grounds on which termination of pregnancy should be permitted in Ireland, if...

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: We also propose to make provision for access to termination of pregnancy on an emergency basis in line with the process in the 2013 Act. That would cover situations in which the risk to the life or of serious harm to the health of the pregnant woman is immediate. We cannot tie the hands of our clinicians in responding immediately to threats to the life or health of a woman. Should a...

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: In these cases, the people best placed to make such a decision are the woman and her medical team. We all have heard some heartbreaking stories of women in these situations who have chosen differently. Unlike the crude and ignorant commentary I heard in the other House, in both circumstances, regardless of the choice the woman makes, those are babies who were loved and wanted. We have to...

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: This recommendation was also based on important evidence the committee heard of the increasing use of abortion pills purchased illegally over the Internet and taken by pregnant women without medical supervision. We have heard the harrowing stories from doctors who have seen women in emergency departments who have taken these pills without medical supervision. While these pills can be...

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: This opportunity, however, is denied to Irish women who make lonely journeys to other countries or who are accessing abortion pills online and taking them alone and unsafely. In the general scheme approved by the Government, it is proposed that it will be an offence to terminate a pregnancy otherwise than in accordance with the provisions set out in the general scheme. However, a woman who...

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: Other measures include enhanced dating and anomaly scanning services in addition to that provided through the 2018 HSE service plan; additional endocrinologists, specialist nurses and midwives in diabetes and dieticians to help prevent obesity, which is a preventable cause of maternal illness in pregnancy; the roll-out of the electronic health record for mothers and babies to all maternity...

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: I outlined in this House that women from every county in the country are travelling abroad to access terminations. They are not nameless, faceless women although it might suit some people to pretend they are. They are real women-----

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: -----they are related to us, they work with us and they are our neighbours. We know them and we are letting them down. We are letting the women who travel down - the women who turn up at the airport as we sit here today in Seanad Éireann. They might be sitting on the seat of a plane beside someone going on a business trip or honeymooners going away and they will make the lonely...

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: Yes.

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: I do not wish to start on a note of disagreement but the last time I was in the House it was for the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill and I was here for an awful long time as well. The Senator seems to enjoy having me here.

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: I do not know whether it is me or the Senators but we often seem to have very long and considered debates, but they are always terribly fruitful and respectful and I do not think tonight was any different. I thank Senators on all sides of the House for their considered contributions. I join with all of them in noting, with all sincerity, that it has been a very respectful debate

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Simon Harris: I am nearly getting worried now that respectful is becoming clichéd and it should not, because it is so important and we have managed so far to have this Bill move through the Dáil and now move through the Seanad. We have had debates on Oireachtas committees and generally the tone of the debate has been encouraging. We can passionately disagree on this without calling each other...