Results 5,801-5,820 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: We should all get on with doing what we are supposed to do, rather than trying to fight battles day and night. The saving of €4 million that I mentioned previously did not relate solely to blood products. I agreed with what the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, had said on "Prime Time", which was that €4 million could be saved if the hospital worked with St. James's Hospital on blood...

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: Yes. A total of 17.5 physiotherapy posts are filled at the moment. It is a question of the manner in which physiotherapists are allocated. I understand that the person in question will be replaced when she goes on maternity leave. I do not have the figures on scoliosis in my head. I think I had them for an earlier question. I understand that 11 operations were postponed, of which nine...

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: There are a large number of questions there. That is the article I am referring to, from The Argus newspaper, with the headline, "Private care is curtailed", and-----

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: -----the Sinn Féin public representative was critical of that. I very much welcome the contribution from The Argus newspaper to this debate because it displays the hypocrisy that exists. We curtail private care and we are all entitled to access to public hospitals, and that is being criticised.

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: The Deputy cannot have it every way.

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: The Deputy surely does not want us-----

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: Deputy Ó Caoláin can tell his colleague that the public hospital is for all patients.

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: I am pretty sure the Deputy will tell him. I want to clarify what I said regarding the point I was making to Deputy Reilly. The numbers of scoliosis patients' appointments cancelled was 13, not 11, as I said, and I am sorry. Five of those had their appointments immediately rescheduled. I believe Professor Drumm will deal specifically with that issue when he addresses the Oireachtas...

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: Regarding the €20 million, I am satisfied this is true and in fact a minimum figure when four catering departments are combined as well as four HR departments, four payroll systems, four central sterile units, waste management and all of these things. One does not need to have four CEOs, although two directors of nursing are required, one for children and one for adults. There are very...

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: I will leave it to the CEO of the HSE to deal with that when he addresses the committee next week. He is a distinguished paediatrician of world renown who worked in Crumlin hospital and knows it well. He will be addressing all the issues.

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: He is an excellent CEO as well, a man of substantial vision, who had the guts to take on the job and not merely be a hurler on the ditch.

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: One needs to have lots of guts to be a CEO, and vision too. I believe the sum of money allocated within the resource constraints we are living within should be adequate to provide the tertiary services for the sick children from the country and the other services for the children in the Dublin area who require that their secondary care be provided in the three hospitals that exist in the...

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: It is not correct that there have been no additional resources. In my response I said that Dr. Beatrice Nolan was appointed as a consultant haematologist to Crumlin in March. She came from the national tertiary centre at St. James's and relieved the doctor who was working with haemophiliacs and sickle cell patients to allow that other consultant to deal exclusively with sickle cell cases,...

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: Contrary to the Deputy's impression, there has been an significant reduction in the number of people working in management and administration since the HSE was established, and I can give him the data on that. Crumlin hospital has had an increase of 18% in medical and dental staff and 29% in nursing staff. Extra people provide extra services, so when the Deputy says it goes on pay, that is...

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: Yes, absolutely.

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: I am hearing all about care models and the cost-benefit analysis. Does anybody think the facilities at Temple Street and Crumlin are adequate to the needs of our children and that we should build two new hospitals?

National Treatment Purchase Fund. (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: I am inviting the Deputies to deal with these issues at the committee next week.

Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (Resumed) (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: They are all connected. I do not know what the issue is. I am happy to discuss them.

Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (Resumed) (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: As I said before the lunchtime break, the purpose of the legislation is to provide by way of a tax credit by the Exchequer the support of older sicker people by younger people. That has been done by way of a stamp duty on the companies. Clearly, there can be no intention here of overcompensation. That is not only our view, but also very much the view of the EU Directorate General for...

Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (Resumed) (1 Jul 2009)

Mary Harney: I flagged on Committee Stage that I would be introducing them on Report Stage. Some of them are clarifications from our own perspective and some of them are on foot of our engagement with the EU on the matter of justifiable state aid. I flagged that matter, because otherwise I would not be able to introduce them. We had been in dialogue with the EU for quite some time and I had expected a...