Results 27,721-27,740 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Staff (10 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Restrictions on the employment of additional staff will be eased in 2015 as a result of announcements in the Budget. This will give HSE management greater autonomy to manage their own staffing profile, with discretion over staffing levels within an overall pay framework resulting in flexibility to introduce measures for the most cost effective arrangements to meet service requirements and...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointments Administration (10 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The National Waiting List Management Policy, A standardised approach to managing scheduled care treatment for in-patient, day case and planned procedures, January 2014,has been developed to ensure that all administrative, managerial and clinical staff follow an agreed national minimum standard for the management and administration of waiting lists for scheduled care. This policy, which has...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Nursing Staff Provision (10 Dec 2014)

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: Hospital Consultants Recruitment (10 Dec 2014)

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: Hospital Waiting Lists (10 Dec 2014)

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.

Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Instead, we are fortunate to have in charge of this country a Government and a Taoiseach who can rise above such petty rancour and provide real leadership. That is why I have every confidence in the Taoiseach and the Government to pilot us through the remains of the storm and back into safe harbour. I am honoured to support the motion.

Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I rise to support the motion of confidence in the Taoiseach and the Government. When we assess the contribution and performance of any government, we must look back to what its members said they would do if they were trusted by the people with the reins of office. We said we would repair the public finances and do so without increasing income tax. That has been done and our public finances...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: To take the second point first, a circular is being prepared to be sent to GPs explaining the changes in the system, what is happening and what their powers are. The power to extend the medical card and to reinstate it in certain circumstances has been in place for some time, and it is used. The fact that it has been used in hundreds of cases indicates that some GPs know it exists and have...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: That relates to payments to the State Claims Agency.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I hear what Deputy Ó Caoláin is saying. My constituency office hears about similar issues from time to time. Approximately 2 million people have either a medical card or a GP visit card. Hundreds of thousands of applications are processed and reviews are carried out every year. Even in the best system, if 2% or 3% of applications go wrong, this means 4,000 to 6,000 cases are...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: It is for lump sum payments as more staff retired than had been anticipated.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I do not know exactly, but it is somewhat different when broken down by hospital group.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, it is noted. In response to a few of the questions raised, certainly by Deputy Ó Caoláin, no overspends will be carried into 2015. The HSE will start with a clean slate in 2015. There are some deficits in the voluntary hospitals that they carry forward from year to year but that is a somewhat different matter. It is acknowledged that the matter is not going to go away and...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: On the specific issue of periodic payment orders, the Minister for Justice and Equality is due to publish legislation early next year. I expect it to go through the House next year. There is the bigger issue. I think tort reform is required in this country. In terms of payments for medical negligence, in many cases these are not cases of medical negligence at all and can be biological...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: It took until 12.47 p.m. to get my first invitation, which is a record.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I am happy to reply. I thank Deputy Healy very much for the kind invitation to visit South Tipperary General Hospital. I have a fair idea of what happens on the ground to the extent that is possible in such a wide and varied health service. I spent a good chunk of yesterday in Beaumont Hospital.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: It is, but today is unusual because I have only received one request for a day trip and it is not even lunchtime. There will be at least four before the end of the day. It is important that I spend as much time as possible in the Dáil and Seanad and in my Department. I would love to spend two days a week on day trips and trips overseas but looking at trolleys and overcrowded clinics...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Chairman and apologise for being late, but I was delayed at a Cabinet meeting. The Cabinet is still meeting to discuss other items, among them the Estimates and the Appropriation Bill for next year. Before I address the Supplementary Estimate, I will briefly outline the funding position for 2015. Since my appointment as Minister for Health, I have said on more than one...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medical Aids and Appliances Provision (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: My Department has no information on the utilisation of defibrillators nor the operational issues associated with them. There is currently no structured public access defibrillation programme in operation in Ireland that specifies the conditions for providing defibrillators in public places. The Public Health (Availability of Defibrillators) Bill 2013 that is currently at Committee stage...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospitals Building Programme (9 Dec 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Most construction projects including those of the scale of the phased development at OLOL Drogheda are completed over a multi-annual period with funding required over a similar period. The proposal envisages, a phased delivery over a period, of a five storey block with an initial fit out of 60 beds on two floors. The remaining three floors have been designed to accommodate an expanded ED on...