Results 30,241-30,260 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Tests (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I propose to take Questions Nos. 428 and 430 together. Under the current travel measures, as provided in S.I. 135/2021, passengers travelling to Ireland are required to present evidence of a negative result from a PCR test. Currently, children aged 6 are not subject to this requirement. The Government has announced revised travel policies to take effect from 19th July in keeping with the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Vaccination Programme (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is ongoing, and the HSE is working hard to...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Procedures (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Pandemic (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The HSE has worked to ensure that the measures in place in schools are robust and prioritise the safety of staff and children. Dedicated multidisciplinary school teams led by public health professionals, working with teams from the Department of Education and school inspectors have been established to support school principals to identify issues as they emerge and work in a collaborative...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Food Safety (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The British-Irish Agreement Act, 1999 provides for the Food Safety Promotion Board/Safefood to have both an Advisory Board and an Advisory Committee. Safefood Advisory Committee (SAC) members are selected by Safefood following a publicly advertised invitation for expressions of interest from suitably qualified professionals ?working in fields relevant to the organisation's aims. The...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Vaccination Programme (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Ireland's COVID-19 vaccination programme strategy is to distribute all available vaccine as quickly as is operationally possible, prioritising those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19. The programme is based on the principles of safety, effectiveness and fairness, with the objective of reducing severe illness, hospitalisations and deaths from COVID-19 infection. The immunisation...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Vaccination Programme (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is ongoing, and the HSE is working hard to...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for the question. My understanding is that a huge amount of work was done over a significant period of time in that mediation, which was chaired by Mr. Mulvey. The agreement that was reached worked for the National Maternity Hospital and St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group. The question we are all asking is whether it works for the State. At this point it is fair to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I am not sure what has changed. The Mulvey agreement was put in place. It is being reviewed by the Department, the board of the HSE and this Government. It is an ongoing process. The broad outline, and much of the detail in the Mulvey agreement, is fit for purpose and will serve very well, but it is an ongoing process as to the final-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. The Mulvey agreement set out the principles but it did not include, for example, the legal documentation. After the Mulvey agreement set out the principles, there were years of detailed work to enshrine it in legal work. It is not that we are going back to pull apart the Mulvey agreement. The cornerstone of what we all want to achieve is to build as quickly as possible...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I fully agree with the Deputy. The Mulvey agreement was a framework agreement. A vast amount of work has been done since then to find a legal agreement that works. Very reasonable questions have been posed recently. People want to be assured of the clinical and operational independence of the new hospital. We need to listen carefully to those concerns and address them. We must listen to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The questions are being raised in part by members of the committee, Members of the Oireachtas and members of civil society. Those are people who have a legitimate desire to see full clinical and operational independence.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Concerns were raised by the Tánaiste in the Dáil quite recently.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: We are still engaging with the stakeholders on all of these issues. I reiterate that there is no formal proposal yet that the Department has brought to me or that I have brought to Cabinet. This is an ongoing process which we want to bring to a satisfactory conclusion very quickly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I wish I could give the Deputy an accurate answer as to when that will happen. Engagement is ongoing. There are legitimate outstanding concerns which need to be resolved. As soon as they are resolved, I would like to discuss the final agreement with my colleagues at Cabinet and in the Oireachtas.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for his question. I have those figures. A project board is in place to oversee the development of the capital project. The board is chaired by HSE estates and includes representatives from the national maternity hospital, St. Vincent's Healthcare Group, the HSE and the relevant national clinical programme in the Department of Health. The first phase of the capital...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The cost is €51 million, including VAT. I was trying to share what we are getting for that money.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: These are enabling works. There has been broad agreement for some time that this would be the location. The State has been criticised in the past for being too slow in its major capital projects. It was a decision for the previous Government. My understanding is that the decision made, which seemed sensible, was that where we could do things in parallel to speed up how quickly we could...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The short answer is "Yes". The then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, in a meeting with St. Vincent's Healthcare Group, raised the point that the State wanted ownership of the site. My understanding is that the then Secretary General, either at the same meeting or subsequently, raised the same issue. That is in the minutes of the meeting. We can-----