Results 5,861-5,880 of 9,393 for speaker:Alex White

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: I am anticipating the case the Deputy makes in what I say. I do not propose to accept amendment No. 6. There are clear definitions of personal data and sensitive data under the existing Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2003. Personal data means data relating to a living individual who is, or can be, identified from the data or from the data in conjunction with other information that is in, or...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: They have been doing it since 1990.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: Although its application in this context is to the over-70s, it is not a new provision that the Minister may issue guidelines in respect of matters such as ordinary residence. It has no application whatsoever to social welfare.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: The examples that have been given are being given in the context of social welfare. This has no application to social welfare. There is no point in invoking examples from the social welfare code in support of an argument on the question of medical cards. They are two completely different regimes. What we are dealing with here is medical cards and a specific provision which is not new in...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: I am not minded to make the section contingent or conditional on the referral of guidelines to the committee. I value highly the input, contribution and insight of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children, as does the Minister, but I am not minded to make the section conditional or contingent on the matter going before the committee. At the risk of irritating the Members in the...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: For the information of the Deputy and of the House, I can only deal with the issue of medical cards, not the social welfare issue or the other matters referred to by the Deputy. As the House has previously been informed, the HSE has confirmed that the average waiting time for an appeal is currently between four and 12 weeks. On 18 March 2013, 95.38% of medical card applications were being...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: The position is exactly as the Deputy describes: there are already guidelines in place which have been issued and circulated by the Minister. This section of the Bill provides for the same guidelines for those over 70. It is simply repeating the power of the Minister to issue guidelines to the HSE and persons designated by him or her with regard to the question of whether a person is...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: This is an exact restatement of the provision in existing legislation. It is only an enabling power, which already existed, for the Minister to bring in regulations. My information is that regulations have not been introduced to date. It is a restatement of a power that has always been in the legislation entitling the Minister to make regulations. A Minister cannot make regulations unless...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: It is important to make a distinction between a law that is made giving or removing substantial entitlements and a procedure that exists for a person to lodge an appeal if he or she is in some way disappointed or has lost out on an application. All this does is to allow the Minister to provide, by regulation, for the making and determination of appeals under this section. It is purely a...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: The Oireachtas makes the law. The Minister does not make the law. That is the position, and that was also the case when Deputy Kelleher was on this side of the House. That is the system we have - parliamentary democracy. If any Minister is going to make regulations, he or she cannot do so willy-nilly. There must be an Act under which the Minister may make the regulations. The...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: That is incorrect.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: The consumer price index formula that is being used is almost precisely a word-for-word replica of what is in the 2008 Act. I would be concerned if it were true, as Deputy Kelleher suggests, that this will give the Minister of the day a certain latitude. I would be concerned about his view if it were true, but it does not seem to me that it is. It seems to me that any clear or reasonable...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: It is published by the CSO. It is not the case that there is no accountability. Anybody can see the consumer price index. The limited power being given to the Minister to increase or decrease the income limits will be predicated exclusively and expressly on movements in the consumer price index, which is open for all to see on the public record because it is published by the Central...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: With regard to the consumer price index issue raised by Deputy Kelleher, that only relates to the rather restricted circumstances in which the Minister can increase or decrease the limits in accordance with the index. We had some discussion on this on Second Stage and the impression may have formed in some quarters that this is a kind of catch-all power for the Minister and that he could...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Medicinal Products Availability (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: The Revenue Commissioner's Customs Service and the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) have shared competency in relation to the prevention and detection at importation of illicit medicines. In addition the IMB and the Customs Service have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and under this MOU both organisations work closely to detain and prohibit prescription medicines purchased online from being...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: General Practitioner Services (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: The current General Medical Services (GMS) General Practitioner (GP) Capitation Contract was introduced in 1989 and is based on a diagnosis and treatment model. Section 11 of the current contract states as follows: "The medical practitioner shall provide for eligible persons, on behalf of the relevant Health Board, all proper and necessary treatment of a kind usually undertaken by a general...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Medical Card Applications (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: The Health Service Executive has been asked to examine this matter and to reply to the Deputy as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Medical Card Applications (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: The Health Service Executive has been asked to examine this matter and to reply to the Deputy as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Medical Card Numbers (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: The information sought by the Deputy is not readily available. However, I have asked the Health Service Executive to supply this information to me and I will forward it to the Deputy as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Health Services Expenditure (26 Mar 2013)

Alex White: I propose to take Questions Nos. 542 and 543 together. The prices of drugs vary between countries for a number of reasons, including different prices set by manufacturers, different wholesale and pharmacy mark-ups, different dispensing fees and different rates of VAT. In recent years, a number of changes to the pricing and reimbursement system have been successfully introduced in Ireland....