Results 28,581-28,600 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Other Questions: Nursing Education (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate the Deputy's interest in this matter, which he has raised with me separately on other occasions. I refer to the industrial relations issue between the HSE and the INMO, which is being dealt with by the LRC and in which I am not involved. There are also issues relating to staff deployment. In my view, one thing the Minister for Health should not do is to attempt to redeploy...

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is quite incorrect. More people in Ireland have medical cards than ever before and more people have GP visit cards.

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The discretionary medical cards that were withdrawn have been restored to those who lost discretionary medical cards and have a medical illness. What Deputy Kelleher is saying is incorrect. However, he let the cat out of the bag about the Fianna Fáil policy because he said his party is committed to universal health care and wants it to be tax funded. How much will it cost and who will...

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The fact that Deputy Kelleher must interrupt me throughout my response indicates the extent to which he is on the run.

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Kelleher has announced in the House that Fianna Fáil is committed to tax-funded universal health care, which will cost several billion euro. Anyone who can add knows that. How will Fianna Fáil impose the additional several billion euro of taxes on the Irish people?

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Over what limit?

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I am committed to a major agenda of health reform in line with the commitments contained in the programme for Government and our policy statement, Future Health. I want to push ahead as soon as possible with key reforms in areas such as extending GP care without fees on a phased basis, improving the management of chronic diseases, implementing key financial reforms, including the...

Other Questions: Universal Health Insurance (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: To be clear, we are not parking UHI; that is not what I said. I spoke about universal health care and universal health insurance. To me, universal health care includes a number of dimensions, for example, access to general practitioners without fees, which will be tax-funded, and access to primary care. It also includes health insurance for everyone across the hospital system, which could...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Groups (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: When it comes to reorganising services, we must always bear in mind that medicine, best practice and clinical science are always changing. There will never be an end point when it comes to reorganising services and we will always be adapting them. What we need in the health service is not disruptive reform but evolutionary reform, which means more things moving from hospitals to primary...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Groups (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: There will be a job to be done in educating the public and, to a lesser extent, GPs about where patients should go and when. Ideally, an older patient with pneumonia should be referred by his or her GP to a medical admissions unit, if there is one available. He or she should not - at least not during the day - be calling an ambulance to take him or her to an emergency department. The same...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Groups (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The Government’s decision to establish hospital groups, where small and larger hospitals work together, was informed by two reports, the hospital groups report and the smaller hospitals framework.The hospital groups will provide an optimal configuration of services, with benefits relating to safety, quality, access and cost. Every hospital, large and small, will play a vital role in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Abortion Legislation (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: What the opinion polls show is that a clear majority of the Irish population still do not support abortion on demand or request. I understand that is the Deputy's position. It is one she is-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Abortion Legislation (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: It is a position she is entitled to hold, but it is not the majority view in the State, based on the opinion polls to which she refers. I will give my opinion as a doctor and a young man at a later stage. However, I am Minister for Health and the Government's position is clear - we have no plans to repeal the eighth amendment. It is important to bear in mind that if the eighth emendment...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Ebola Virus Outbreak (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I will answer that question if the Deputy puts it to me with the others.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Abortion Legislation (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy is aware, Article 40.3.3oof the Irish Constitution states:The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.The interpretation of Article 40.3.3owas considered by the Supreme Court in Attorney General v....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Abortion Legislation (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: There are various accounts in the newspapers of the Y case. The reason I want to wait for the report is that there is information in the newspapers about which I know nothing. Therefore, I want to wait for the report, to see all of the facts and consider them. I do not want to jump to conclusions and I am concerned that people on both extremes of the issue, within a day or two of the case...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Ebola Virus Outbreak (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate the Deputy's concerns about the Ebola outbreak. The outbreak in West Africa is very serious. Our main efforts are obviously to support the work taking place there through the Department of Foreign Affairs, the World Health Organization, the European Commission and various aid agencies on the ground. We must issue travel advice and have measures in place to identify a case...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Ebola Virus Outbreak (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: There are many questions there and I do not believe I will be able to answer them all in the minute allowed, unfortunately. With regard to the national isolation unit in the Mater hospital, there is a self-contained unit with 12 beds. These include six lobbied en-suite single rooms with negative pressure ventilation so the virus cannot spread through the air. Two of the isolation rooms are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Ebola Virus Outbreak (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: On 8 August 2014, the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in west Africa to be a public health emergency of international concern. As of 24 September 2014, the cumulative number of cases attributed to Ebola in the five affected west African countries stood at 6,263, including 2,917 deaths. There have been no cases of Ebola in Ireland. The focus of public health planning...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE Expenditure (30 Sep 2014)

Leo Varadkar: One should not make the mistake of believing serious problems in one area reflect the position throughout the health service. I look at the figures for the numbers of patients on trolleys every day and while there is an overcrowding problem in Limerick, the figures on a given day may show that half of perhaps 50 or 60 patients on trolleys are in three hospitals and another ten hospitals may...