Results 8,201-8,220 of 21,128 for speaker:James Reilly

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: It is a bit rich to be told about a recruitment embargo that Fianna Fáil introduced itself. It is a bit rich to talk about the country's finances when we all know the cause of the problem and that we are struggling. Despite taking €3 billion out of health services and losing over 10,000 staff, we have not only maintained a safe health service but have also improved it, as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: The Minister of State and I have been working on this aggressively. The Minister of State has led the charge and I am 100% behind him. I have had meetings with senior Cabinet colleagues on the matter in order to seek agreement. As with the Minister of State, I am hopeful that the memorandum will be signed off this week. Let me make one point that I got distracted from making on the power...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: I will leave Deputy McLellan's questions on the dentists and medical cards to the Minister of State, Deputy Alex White. I am sure Mr. O'Brien and Ms Laverne McGuinness will have points to make on the ambulance service in Cork. It would be worthwhile, at a mimimum, conducting a review of local GPs to see what is their experience of the ambulance service and to quantify whether there is a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan may find that he is wrong. There has been much negotiation. In fairness, we must allow the sporting organisations to replace their current advertisers and sponsors with others. They stated the same about tobacco advertising when it was removed and, sadly, there is still 29% prevalence of tobacco smoking in the country. Happily, I am able to say there has been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: What particular question does the Chairman want me to address?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: I, too, am very concerned about that and I believe we should be moving in that direction. I have spoken to the Department about it. We will engage with the HSE, move the situation forward and revert to the Deputy on it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: I want to be absolutely clear about this. I have met with Commissioner Andor on a number of occasions. I have given him a commitment that we will be within the working time directive in the next 24 months, that we have a time schedule laid out and timelines that must be met about different areas. That is why the hospital groups aspect is so important because it will allow for reduced hours...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: I have made this point previously. It is bizarre that we are spending large sums of money training our own graduates, some of whom make the best doctors in the world. We know that because when they go abroad they excel. We educate and train them to go abroad to work and we go to Third World countries and recruit their doctors. That does not make any sense. The issue around a clear career...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: The Chairman advised Senator Crown a few minutes ago on a question that was not on the clár.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: I thank Senator Colm Burke for the issue he raised, as it is one of that is serious concern, and certainly of serious concern to me. The idea that people are on six-month contracts is something I have discussed already with the Department. We are looking at giving people a three-year contract when they have done their intern years. In that way we would have them for two more years as SHOs,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: I think Tracey Cooper will be very relieved to hear that. We could look forward to the inspection of some hospitals through that mechanism in the future.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: The relevant matter here is that tobacco is a killer. The tobacco industry is an industry that promotes its product. It must replace 5,200 Irish people and 700,000 Europeans every year with new clients and those clients are children. A total of 78% of smokers surveyed in this country said they started smoking when they were under the age of 18 and several surveys done across the EU have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: If I may, Chairman, I would like, before Mr. O'Brien responds to Deputy Ó Caoláin's question, to make a point in regard to the work that has been going on at St. James's Hospital. As we have said, a project team in the hospital is looking after the decanting project, with a clear plan set out to deliver a brownfield site. I commend the hospital's chief executive officer on the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: In response to Deputy Healy's point, as somebody who worked in the system for 25 years I find it very strange that someone would get a discretionary medical card with an expiry date seven or eight years out. Discretionary medical cards on the basis of medical need are for people who find themselves in an acute situation - very often, sadly, those who are terminally ill. This is where the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: As I have stated on a number of occasions, it is unacceptable that the cost of private health insurance continues to increase. It is also unacceptable that the number of health insurance claims increased by 14% in 2012, given that the number of people insured declined last year. There is no proper audit of the sector. For example, there is no clinical audit, in other words, treating...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: The nursing homes support scheme is run fairly. As discussed with Mr. Tony O'Brien and the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, we will revert to the normal course once the pressure point has been addressed, as it has been. Mr. O'Brien will provide further detail. Nobody was disadvantaged because anybody who had been on the list was allocated a bed. We will catch up and make it fair...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: If the Deputy has a specific case in mind, he should provide me with the details. As I stated, we will catch up and there will be fairness and equity across the system by the end of the year. We will also catch up with our inpatient elective procedures by the end of the year. Deputy Seamus Healy also referred to the outpatients list. This was an unintentional oversight. This is the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: Yes; it will also include ear, nose and throat procedures.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: Yes, there are reasons for that and we can deal with that issue also. The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, will discuss the issue of cochlear implants. I am grateful to her for meeting yesterday with concerned parents who have formed the Happy New Ear group. On the national paediatric hospital, we have a project timeline to have a cleared, brownfield site ready for building to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Affairs: Discussion with Minister for Health and HSE (23 May 2013)

James Reilly: Many of the questions asked by members of the committee relate to officials who are in attendance. I will touch on the questions that are appropriate to me and pass the other questions on. Deputy Kelleher asked about the temporary suspension of the fair deal scheme. Mr. Tony O'Brien went into that in some detail, in fairness. I would like to comment on it in the overall context of the...