Results 9,121-9,140 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointments Status (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual. In relation to...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: That is on the implementation. Good.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. I understand both the rationale and the intent of what he is proposing. There has been very intensive back and forth between my Department, legal advisers, drafters and the Attorney General on many aspects of the Bill because we are trying to walk a very tight line between protecting people who are trying to access healthcare services and protecting the right of...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I wish to make a few brief points, two of which are slightly off the topic of the Bill. We had a bit if a ding-dong here last week on Committee Stage of another Bill. I want to retract the comments I made. I had not realised that the committee was not briefed that the pre-legislative scrutiny members did was being fully incorporated into a new Bill. Everyone has a job to do so I retract...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I am not in a position to do so today but I will ask my officials to come back to the committee to provide a report on the steps that have been taken so far. I am in regular contact with the national women and infants health programme, NWIHP, which is taking the lead on many of the elements of this. There has been a big focus on making sure, for example, that services are provided in all...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I do not disagree with the rationale or the intent. It comes down to two issues. One is a practical point, which is that the gardaí themselves do not have a system for this. I imagine that this will evolve over time and they will have a system in time, and I imagine it will then be recorded centrally over time. However, regardless of anything we put into this Bill now, they could not...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank colleagues. I think we can do as Deputy Cullinane proposes and we are moving into it now. I was going to suggest a Report Stage amendment to provide for a review. We can discuss the timeframe but it would have to include an assessment of how the legislation is working in respect of the warnings. That is something that has been identified by the committee. It has been explored at...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. She has raised two issues. One is the mechanism of the warning and why an offence is not immediately committed. The second relates to the issue of a report. I propose to table an amendment on Report Stage that is broader than the amendment she has proposed. This amendment is specifically targeted at the effect of the warnings. I am going to propose a broader review...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: That is the warning. Now they essentially have to stop immediately and if they do not, they will have committed an offence and may be charged and that is recorded. It will be a bit of a Pyrrhic victory for whoever is trying to do this because they will very quickly be told, "You have to stop and if you don't stop, you'll be charged."

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I suggest that 12 months is too soon given that it takes a few months to do this work. You would probably be looking at the operation of it within six months. I would suggest a two-year period to give it time to see what is happening and then to give time to do the actual research and report back to the Oireachtas. If colleagues feel strongly about it, we can explicitly reference to...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: Absolutely. I am not hung up on two years at all. I really do not mind what the period is. I think it needs to be long enough that we can actually get some information on this having been used and short enough that, if there are issues, we know about them. We will take advice but I am not hung up on one year, two years or 18 months at all. I would say it should be the earliest possible...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Chair.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: It will certainly be through Report Stage. It is then a matter for the Seanad rather than me to facilitate time for the Bill. We will be ready to go straight away and will certainly seek the earliest possible time from the Seanad.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I take the Deputy's point and I take the committee's point on this in terms of the central recording. Even without the central recording, if Mr. X or Mrs. X arrived at a premises in Dublin having protested at a premises in Cork, the gardaí can immediately move in and say, "You are engaged in prohibited behaviour within a safe access zone. You need to stop or you will have committed an...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: It may not be a problem. Remember that the purpose of this is to give An Garda Síochána the powers to stop the harassment of people using the service and the service providers. This Bill most definitely does that. I take the Deputy's point. There is a secondary point about people receiving multiple warnings around the country but I am very confident that the primary purpose of...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (25 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: We hope to have Report Stage as soon as possible, so certainly in this term, after which it will move to the Seanad. It is a priority to get this legislation enacted.

Health Service Funding: Motion [Private Members] (24 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I agree, Deputy.

Health Service Funding: Motion [Private Members] (24 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: They are not from within the House. The suggestion was not that they were from within the House.

Health Service Funding: Motion [Private Members] (24 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: This is what our doctors, our nurses and all our healthcare professionals are hearing-----

Health Service Funding: Motion [Private Members] (24 Oct 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: ----about their efforts to provide the services, treat the extra patients and spend the extra money. We all know there are productivity gains to be had, but at least two thirds of the additional spending this year is because our healthcare workers are rightly treating more patients who are showing up, and are doing so at a time when medicines and supplies have become more expensive. Turning...