Results 32,161-32,180 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (27 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: We will need to see how that situation evolves. The current position is that the vaccines are incredibly effective and very safe. As the Chairman rightly stated, there are side effects within the normal parameters of people being vaccinated. For the moment, that is the focus. We are aware of a number of challenges to hotel quarantine. I can share with the committee that, when the...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (27 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: On universal access to primary care, including free GP care, I agree. It is worth saying that the measures we brought in towards the end of last year increased the total number by several hundred thousand children. The Deputy was critical of it at the time, as is her right, because she wants more to happen faster, but several hundred thousand children - I will seek the actual figure - were...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (27 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank members for their time, questions and ideas. There are several pieces of follow-up work that we will do, be it on the National Maternity Hospital and various technical notes people have. My view is that this is a really exciting budget. It is a lot of money. There is a lot of technical stuff happening in the background in respect of financial reporting and IT systems on e-health...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I will be guided by the Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Am I to wrap up on the item?

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Or was that Deputy Carey's time? I am happy to do whatever the Leas-Cheann Comhairle thinks best.

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I see. Thank you.

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank Deputies across the House for their contributions. It is most valuable to hear them. Certainly, one of the things that the Minister for State and I will take away is the need to have an immediate conversation with the HSE and the Department in respect of doing everything possible to get to the housebound. The National Ambulance Service is doing Trojan work, but we will engage,...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The Deputy most definitely should have got those details if I committed to doing that. The only question I am trying to clarify concerns the fact that there are two call centres. There is one for GPs and one for the public.

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I apologise, I am genuinely trying to be helpful. I will need more details on the specific case. If the Deputy has not been getting the detail in writing from me through parliamentary questions or, indeed, through our debate here, she should be. It is something I will take back with me today.

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I am aware of the situation. The current public health advice to me is that the exemption should apply to EMA-approved vaccines. I believe that list will grow. Sinopharm is one of the 12 which is not within the four that have been recognised by the EMA, but it is a reasonable question. The question being posed by Irish people who are in the Emirates right now is reasonable and I will seek...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. The question has been put to me directly in the last week and a half. I do not want to stray into giving medical advice, which I am not qualified to give. I put the same question to public health and the Department and the answer I got was that the issue has been looked into in great detail, and the advice from NIAC is that there is no additional risk. However, I am...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Deputy McGrath has come in here week after week and made contributions like he has just made. He has just said several things which are verifiably false, and importantly so. He has stated some quite outrageous things, such as the Taoiseach-----

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The Deputy has just stated some really dangerous things, such as saying that healthcare workers are being forced to take vaccines. The problem is that this is a questions and answers session. Every week, the Deputy comes in here and, every week, just like this, he has said many things, many of them false and several of them dangerous.

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Deputy McGrath has never once, just as with this week, left time for me to answer or address anything he has said. The protocol in this session is not that Deputy McGrath stands up and makes a list of false claims then gets responses in writing from me. It is a questions and answers session. If the Deputy wants answers, I am here, but he has to leave time for me to correct many of the...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Are we referring to the call centre for GPs or the HSE Live call centre?

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputies for their questions and kind words for everyone working in the vaccination programme. As I know all Deputies will fully appreciate, the people running the programme right across the country, in so many different areas, are working flat out. I engage with them at weekends, at 7 o'clock in the morning and at 11 o'clock at night. They are working non-stop. It is a great...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank Deputy Berry for his questions and can assure him that Professor Mac Craith is working beyond what would normally be considered full time. If full time is 40 hours per week, although I know it is a lot longer for a lot of people, then Professor Mac Craith is working well beyond that. I speak to him almost daily, including early in the morning and late at night and I commend him and...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for his questions. The over-85 cohort has been substantially completed but there is no doubt that across our country there will be people in that age group who are still waiting. Deputy Higgins, for example, said earlier that there is a GP in her constituency who is refusing to vaccinate his patients who are over 70 and that alternative arrangements need to be put in...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputies for their questions. I will run through them quickly to try and get to all four. I take Deputy Flaherty's point on wanting to get back to normal life as quickly as possible. We all want it. We are all desperate for it for ourselves and our communities, and our business communities are all desperate for it. However, we still have to proceed with care. One of the...