Results 2,761-2,780 of 11,979 for speaker:Billy Kelleher

Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2016: Report and Final Stages (6 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: I do not know whether the Minister of State's attention has been brought to the starter packs that are now on sale, which include some cigarettes and loose tobacco for a person to roll his or her own cigarettes. They are packaged in a typical cigarette pack. I will furnish the details to the Minister of State, although I accept it is a bit late to address the issue in the context of the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Departmental Reports (6 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: 295. To ask the Minister for Health the number of reports that have been commissioned by him since his appointment; the number that have been received by him; the number outstanding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38377/16]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Departmental Reports (6 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: 296. To ask the Minister for Health the number and cost of all reports commissioned by him, his predecessors, or his Department, in each of the years 2011 to date in 2016 in tabular form; the topics they are investigating; the date of completion; the date of publication; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38378/16]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Departmental Meetings (6 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: 297. To ask the Minister for Health the number of meetings that have taken place with the chief executive officer of the HSE, or other senior HSE directors, since his appointment; the decisions taken as a result of those meetings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38379/16]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Overcrowding (6 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: 298. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide a report on the current activities being undertaken as part of the 2016-2017 winter initiative; the amount that has been expended to date; the amount that remains from the originally allocated budget; the progress that has been made in terms of reducing the number of persons waiting on trolleys; and if he will make a statement on the...

Cannabis for Medicinal Use (Regulations) Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members] (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: I welcome the opportunity to speak to this and I compliment Deputy Gino Kenny for tabling the Bill. It is timely and it can be accepted before being amended and improved if there is concern about some elements of the Bill. Fianna Fáil supports the overall principle of the Bill. The Minister has indicated the HPRA will revert with an expert opinion on the issue of medicinal cannabis....

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: I welcome the fact the Minister will visit the hospital and I do not suggest he is doing so just as a photo opportunity. I hope he will recognise the difficulties and challenges facing staff. However, there are a few problems we know about in advance of his visit. The CUMH has only one gynaecology theatre in operation. There is a huge opportunity because the infrastructure is in place for...

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: Can I ask a supplementary question?

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: This question asks the Minister what he will put in place to assist the 4,038 persons waiting more than 18 months for an outpatient appointment in Cork hospitals and if he will make a statement on the matter. We have been highlighting this for some time. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan has been consistently raising the issue of the problems with gynaecological services in Cork. To give the...

Other Questions: Neuro-Rehabilitation Services (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: 6. To ask the Minister for Health when he will be publishing a plan for advancing neuro-rehabilitation services in the community; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38011/16]

Other Questions: Neuro-Rehabilitation Services (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: When will the Minister for Health publish a plan for advancing neuro-rehabilitation services in the community? By any stretch of the imagination, when we consider the level of service available to people with stroke, acquired brain injury, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, we are light years away from what is necessary. In the context of a capital development plan next year, the...

Other Questions: Neuro-Rehabilitation Services (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: The Minister of State is aware of the shortage but I want to put on the record that 25,000 people a year require some form of rehabilitative services. Most of them struggle just to get the basic services. Ireland should have 270 beds for its population but we have less than half that number, and none outside Dublin. We have been campaigning for a long time - in the context of...

Other Questions: Neuro-Rehabilitation Services (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: I have asked the questions and I thank the Minister of State for the answers but the broader issue is that there must be some regional development of services. We cannot have them located in just one area of the country, which puts huge pressure on families that have to travel long distances over a protracted period. Many families do not have much hope that their loved ones will even get...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Disability Support Services Provision (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: There is not a Deputy in this House who has not met families and individuals who are being decongregated from institutions. That is a broad policy and it is supported. The difficulty is that when a policy becomes a target-setting exercise, very quickly the individuals get left behind. I would be concerned that the focus on targets the whole time and the pressure on the HSE to achieve the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Disability Support Services Provision (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: The Minister is quite right and nobody on this side of the House is suggesting that we should abandon the decongregated settings policy that has been in place for a period of time. The issue here is to ensure that there are full assessments carried out on the individuals, that there are supports in place when the individuals move out to the communities and that those supports are committed...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Disability Support Services Provision (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: What is the status of the implementation of the congregated settings report, the number of persons that have left congregated settings to date in 2016, the measures in place to support persons when they leave the residential institutions? Has the Minister’s attention been drawn to the concerns among the relatives of many of those persons who leave those institutions that the support...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Beds Data (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: 1. To ask the Minister for Health when the review of bed capacity in the hospital sector will take place; if the review will be independent of the HSE; if those persons conducting the review will be asked to examine Ireland’s public bed capacity in the context of both the position in other OECD countries and the bed-occupancy levels that obtain in those countries; and if he will make a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Beds Data (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: I have raised this issue previously, particularly in respect of ensuring that the review will be independent and at one remove from the HSE in order that there can be no accusations of agendas being set, of demands on the State for extra bed capacity or that the HSE would try to cover up failings in the system in terms of the planning problems it may have encountered regarding demands for bed...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Beds Data (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: We heard evidence from Mr. Tony O'Brien at yesterday's meeting of the Committee on the Future of Healthcare on the future needs of health care provision and the investment requirements. It is quite alarming, taking into account the demographics and the changing nature of how we will provide medical care in the years ahead, that our capacity system could just fall over. It is important that...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Beds Data (1 Dec 2016)

Billy Kelleher: In view of the fact the Minister has given a commitment that it will be benchmarked against best international practice and that there will be comparisons with standards in other countries, we need to take into account where we believe health care will be going in the years ahead in terms of primary care, community care and feeding into the acute hospital system, as well as, for example, the...