Results 28,161-28,180 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Metering for water is pretty straightforward as one puts in the meters and then make charges.

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Health insurance and health care is very complicated.

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: What would arise, for example, if there was universal health insurance with competing insurers and people refused to give their insurer their PPS number? What would happen if one brought in compulsory health insurance and people refused to pay the health insurance contribution? Would we then refuse them treatment?

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: There are a lot of things that need to be thought through, which is why we had a public consultation process. I will publish the results of the public consultation process soon. The ESRI and the Health Insurance Authority are doing their work on the costings and that will be published. I expect to be in a position towards the middle of next year to set out a revised roadmap as to how we...

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I was asked about primary care centres and the incentives for people to use them over their emergency departments. Incentives do exist because the charge is lower for primary care centres than for an emergency department. If one attends one's own GP or primary care centre then one does not have to pay an ED charge at all. A big job must be done around educating people on where is the right...

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I will do my best to get around to them all. As Members will know, there are 47 acute hospitals in the State. That is just hospitals, never mind every other aspect of the health service. If I were to spend one day a week on visits it would take me a year to get around to the acute hospitals, never mind trying to get anywhere else. In the new year I will try to get out and about a bit more...

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I am going to Galway in December. It is useful to do it exactly for that reason; to see the reality. There are other Ministers who spend a huge amount of their time just seeing reality and touring the country and not actually getting down to their desk and being here in Parliament.

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Could the Senator repeat that please?

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I was going to point to the obvious flaw in that policy which is that if Sinn Féin were to pursue it, we would probably have no consultants in the country at all.

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I did miss that detail although I had a good look at the policy.

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: If the Senator asserts that is the policy then I believe him but ---

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: --- if one believes in a good public service, one must pay people well across the entire public service. If the Senator thinks that it would only be for hospital consultant posts that we would have problems recruiting the highest quality staff, in the context of a salary cap of €100,000 or a tax rate of 68%, then he is quite wrong. We would struggle to find ---

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: We would struggle to find good IT managers, accountants, financial services personnel and so forth. That is already happening across the public sector now. We are struggling to fill the top posts because of the caps on ----

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Another Sinn Féin policy which I am absolutely certain exists is ---

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Senator Cullinane also asked me to pay attention to him when he was speaking but now he will not let me speak.

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: It is certainly Sinn Féin policy to transfer €90 million in costs to private health insurers which would essentially drive more people out of private health insurance, increase the demands on the public system and make the two-tier system even worse. That is very much Sinn Féin policy. The health service is very difficult to reform and change. If it was like a ship, one...

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: How much time do I have?

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I will respond to two Adjournment debate matters following the conclusion of this business. I will try to cover as much as I can. A number of questions were asked about national policy issues and many others about individual persons or facilities, which could perhaps be better dealt with by correspondence or by means of an Adjournment debate than a debate on health policy and budgets. I am...

Seanad: Health Services: Statements (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I very much welcome the opportunity to address Members of this House on the 2015 Department of Health budget and my priorities for the health sector next year. Since my appointment as Minister for Health, I have said on more than one occasion that it is my first priority to achieve a realistic budget for the health service. I firmly believe we have achieved that in budget 2015, with an...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Departmental Funding (4 Nov 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Tiglin Teen Challenge is a community based residential drug treatment programme, which is supported by the East Coast Regional Drug and Alcohol Task Force. As the HSE provides funding for the initiative, I have asked the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy in relation to this matter. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and...