Results 7,361-7,380 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney
- Hospital Accommodation. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: It will cost the Exchequer approximately â¬100 million a year to secure 1,000 beds. If the Deputy can outline a better way to secure 1,000 beds in our public hospital system using modern infrastructure with the facility available to all patients, provide public patients with services at a hugely discounted price and one accident and emergency department, I am open to her suggestion.
- Hospital Accommodation. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: The Deputy is seeking 4,000 additional hospital beds and I have yet to see how they will be funded. Fine Gael also wants cuts amounting to â¬2 billion. I would love somebody in the party to show me how all that will happen.
- Hospital Accommodation. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: A contract has been signed for one and there are project agreements for many others, which is a different matter. Regarding the hospital where a contract has been signed, clearly I am not in a position to say when the final pieces will be completed. There are legal and financing issues involved. I am not in a position to tell the Deputy when that will happen.
- Hospital Services. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: I have received the report in question in recent days. The study, which was led by Professor Jack Phillips, consultant neurosurgeon, involved a national audit of more than 2,000 patients with significant traumatic brain injury. Data were collected and analysed over a two-year period from April 2002 from the neurosurgical centres at Beaumont Hospital and Cork University Hospital. I welcome...
- Hospital Services. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: I understand two consultants have been recruited at the moment. I have seen the publicity surrounding the issue of neurology. I have equally seen the correspondence from Professor Drumm. If we want to talk about the number of neurologists we have, we must also consider the number of junior doctors we have. We have an unprecedented number of non-consultant hospital doctors in neurology...
- Hospital Services. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: I am not in a position to tell the Deputy when they will take up their posts. I will see whether I can get that information. The data I have suggest there are ten in Beaumont and three in Cork University Hospital. I will see whether I can confirm that.
- Medical Cards. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: The Health Act 2008 allows for a surviving spouse of an over 70 medical card holder to retain his or her card for a period of three years provided that the death occurred on or after 1 January 2009, the surviving spouse or partner was aged 70 or over at the time of the death, and the surviving spouse remains within the â¬1,400 weekly income limit for a couple. After three years, the...
- Medical Cards. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: When we debated the legislation in the House I said that it would have been desirable to leave the medical card in such circumstances with all such spouses. However, a number of legal and equality issues arose and it was not possible legally to do that. Unfortunately there are always cut-off points in any legislation. Currently a person in his or her 40s, 50s or 60s whose spouse has passed...
- Medical Cards. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: As the Deputy is aware, the medical card scheme generally, with the exception of the over 70s, is allocated on an administrative basis. The only legislation is to do with the over 70s which was introduced in 2002. In normal circumstances, when a person passes away, notwithstanding the fact that the income may remain the same and therefore the assessment will be different in a new set of...
- Medical Cards. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: The Deputy asked me a question. This legislation was drafted by my officials with the help of the Office of the Attorney General and the Attorney General in person. Therefore, we sought to be as reasonable as possible. My desire would have been to have left the card but I was strongly advised that for equality and legal reasons, we were not in a position to do so.
- Hospital Staff. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: Under the European working time directive, the current maximum average working week for non-consultant hospital doctors is 56 hours. This limit will be reduced to 48 hours with effect from 1 August 2009. The directive also specifies minimum daily and weekly rest periods. I am aware that the working hours of non-consultant hospital doctors in our public health service are, in general, not...
- Hospital Staff. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: I appreciate the Deputy's point about patient safety because tired doctors are certainly not safe doctors. The first HSE initiative was to take effect from 18 February and this led to the ballot, which was about three things â a training grant of â¬3,810 per doctor per annum; a meal break of â¬25 million per annum; and a living out allowance of â¬11 million. This is a total of â¬45...
- Hospital Staff. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: I am not referring to training and study time, but to allowances for meals and so on, amounting to â¬25 million for meals, â¬11 million to live out and â¬17 million for training. There must be training, but these allowances are not paid to others in the modern era and are not appropriate. Last year, the bill for overtime amounted to more than â¬200 million. Among the issues that arise...
- Clinical Indemnity Scheme. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: The management of claims covered by the clinical indemnity scheme has been delegated to the State Claims Agency, SCA, under the National Treasury Management (Amendment) Act 2000. Therefore, I have no direct involvement in their management. The 2000 Act imposes an obligation on the agency to ensure that the expenses incurred in the management of claims are contained at the lowest achievable...
- Clinical Indemnity Scheme. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: I share the Deputy's opinion on legal costs in Ireland and the plethora of lawyers, from junior and senior counsel, solicitors and so on, involved in various actions. A previous Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform established a group on legal costs, the recommendations of which are being considered for implementation by the current Minister. The Deputy's point on percentage costs...
- Clinical Indemnity Scheme. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: These are generally determined byââ
- Clinical Indemnity Scheme. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: Regarding Deputy Reilly's question, a plaintiff's costs are generally determined under court procedures. Unfortunately, we pay more in such costs than is paid in other jurisdictions. We also pay our doctors much more for screening programmes. In the new economic circumstances, all these matters must be reviewed. I will revert to Deputy Naughten as I am not in a position to answer his...
- Clinical Indemnity Scheme. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: I would happily have it.
- Health Service Staff. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 and 46 together. The Government has not yet decided on the scale or scope of a voluntary redundancy or early retirement scheme for the Health Service Executive. I have confirmed to the House on a number of occasions that I believe that a managed voluntary redundancy scheme could have an important role to play in helping to improve the delivery of health...
- Health Service Staff. (19 Feb 2009)
Mary Harney: The Minister for Finance has responsibility for public service staffing. Therefore, this is not a matter for me. The Government would have to approve a redundancy scheme and the terms thereof. The intention is that the Minister for Finance will bring a joint memorandum to the Government in regard to the health service. In the past three years, we have increased the number of nurses by 25%...