Results 38,041-38,060 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I accept Deputy Kelly's bona fides on this. He and I have worked on this together on the committee and in this House. I hope he appreciates that I cannot get into a negotiation here with him that I am having in private with this group.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: It has been my intention from the very start to do right by this group. The group wrote to me and asked that the tribunal would be set up immediately, and that is what we moved to do. The group reiterated that in September. Deputy Kelly said that a few small issues may have been resolved but I am afraid that is factually incorrect.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: The single biggest issue is the Supreme Court ruling in the Ruth Morrissey case, and they said themselves that that was a game changer. The group asked for an undertaking that the labs would not be joined as co-defendants in the tribunal. That has been supplied not just by me but in a letter furnished by the chief executive of the State Claims Agency.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: So, with the greatest of respect, that has been done.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: We can all make comments about people adopting attitudes with each other. With the greatest respect, what I say to Deputy Kelly is that I, the Department and the Government are in detailed discussions with the 221+ group. Various issues have been raised. A lot of them have been dealt with comprehensively.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Good progress has been made on the others. I cannot get into a negotiation with Deputy Kelly in the Chamber about this. I need to respect the process that we are going through with the 221+ group. I have received the letter today, and I read it.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I am sorry, but with the greatest respect, it is being looked at. It is a seven-page, detailed legalistic letter. It raises a lot of very detailed issues and we are going to afford it the respect it deserves. We are seeking legal advice on it. We are going to discuss it and we are going to see what progress we can make. The only thing we are bound by is the law.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: My position going into this is exactly my position today. The only thing we want to do is what is right by these women. Deputy Kelly and I voted in this House for the Act that sets this tribunal up.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: What I want to do and what I believe Deputy Kelly wants to do is get this tribunal set up. We have made progress right across the board, within the bounds of the law, which we obviously have to follow.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Tests (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I agree wholeheartedly with the Deputy. The answer may be a bit long but I will supply the Deputy with the full text if we do not get through it. On the advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, the HSE developed the capacity to conduct 100,000 tests per week. I subsequently met the HSE and requested that it look at increasing the capacity. This is now in place and...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Vaccination Programme (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I acknowledge the Deputy's and his party's support in encouraging people to take up the vaccination programme. The expanded flu vaccination campaign is a substantial advance on the campaigns of previous years. Some 1.95 million doses of vaccine, about twice as much as was administered last year, have been made available for those in at-risk groups and children aged from two to 12 years...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Vaccination Programme (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: The orders for the flu vaccination are made at the start of the year. I believe the orders for this winter were made in January or February. The HSE took a new approach. It identified the at-risk groups, and it was calculated that totalled 1.35 million people. Children aged from two to 12 years were added to that and the 600,000 doses were procured. I believe, and the figures confirm,...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Vaccination Programme (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Ireland is currently involved in the EU procurement exercise being operated by the European Commission on behalf of member states to procure a portfolio of stable, safe and effective vaccines in sufficient quantities to combat Covid-19. I am sure the Deputy has seen that we are involved with the WHO and the Gavi global response, which is in a spirit with which the Deputy would agree. It has...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Pandemic (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Section 31A of the Health Act 1947 (as inserted by section 10 of the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020) provides for the power of the Minister for Health to make regulations for preventing, limiting, minimising or slowing the spread of Covid-19. Subsection (3) of the Act provides that before making such regulations, the Minister...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services Funding (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: The Government’s commitment to maintaining and improving access to care can be seen through the allocation of funding in the Winter Plan as well as in Budget 2021. An additional €240 million has been provided in Budget 2021 for an Access to Care Fund, €210 m of which will be allocated as required to the HSE and €30 m to the National Treatment Purchase Fund for the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Narcolepsy Issues (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: The State Claims Agency (SCA) has a statutory remit to manage personal injury claims on behalf of Delegated State Authorities including the Health Service Executive. The management of cases taken by persons who allege they developed Narcolepsy and/or Cataplexy as a result of receiving the H1N1 vaccine, Pandemrix, is delegated to SCA and, as such, the Government has no role in determining how...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Facilities (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: The Herity Report recommended that the operating hours of the existing cath lab at University Hospital Waterford be extended to meet the needs of its effective catchment population. Pending the recruitment required to extend the opening hours, a mobile cath lab providing diagnostic services, was deployed at the hospital in October 2017. The HSE has advised that, due to Covid-19...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Primary Care Centres (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: As the Deputy will be aware, the HSE recently published its Winter Plan for 2020-2021 which set out a range of initiatives that, among other things, targeted acute and ED overcrowding. Amongst the key objectives of the plan are an improvement in patient experience times in Emergency Department settings and a reduction of 30% on the previous year’s trolley count. Extended opening...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Tribunals of Inquiry (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Concerns in respect of the CervicalCheck Tribunal and how CervicalCheck cases would be dealt with were raised with me by the 221+ patient support group at a meeting on 2 September. I responded to the issues raised by the group at those meetings in my letter of 20 October, informing the group of the Tribunal’s establishment day, and in further letters of 27 and 28 October. Further...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Tests (3 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: The HSE has worked intensively over the last number of months to put in place a comprehensive testing and tracing operation. We now have standing capacity to test 120,000 people every week. We are now able to conduct automatic testing of close contacts, serial testing in high risk environments and large-scale testing in outbreak situations. We are now proactively finding more cases than...