Results 9,401-9,420 of 26,394 for speaker:David Cullinane

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Final Report of Nursing Homes Expert Panel (Resumed) (16 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: I thank all of the witnesses for their attendance and the information provided to the committee, which will feed into the its final report. The report will be presented to the Dáil at the end of September or in early October. I also request that all follow up information in written form that has been requested be sent to the committee within ten working days. On Friday, 18 September...

Priority Questions: Covid-19 Tests (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: That is what happens when a party wins 37 seats.

Priority Questions: Budget 2020 (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: 34. To ask the Minister for Health if promised medical card eligibility expansions and reductions in prescription charges made in budget 2020 will be commenced in 2020; the reason for the delay; if funding is being made available for same in 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23641/20]

Priority Questions: Budget 2020 (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: In last year's budget, the Government announced that it would extend the medical card to seven and eight year olds and extend medical card eligibility for the over-70s by changing the eligibility criteria and the thresholds for entry. It also promised that all people with a terminal illness would have a medical card, and examining that issue was in the programme for Government. We passed a...

Priority Questions: Budget 2020 (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: I do not think those over 70 will take any comfort from the fact that this might be addressed again in this year's budget. I do not doubt the Minister of State's sincerity or her association with this issue. The problem is that last year, in my constituency and around the State, Government Deputies were going around saying that this was one of the great things they had in the budget. They...

Priority Questions: Budget 2020 (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: I will make the point again that this was voted on in last year's budget. I do not think there is a Deputy in this Chamber, whether Government or Opposition, who has not been lobbied or received correspondence from parents of children and from older people about this. I also raised the issue of cancer patients and other patients with terminal illnesses who were promised that medical...

Priority Questions: Budget 2020 (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: That is not what the Government says at budget time.

Priority Questions: Covid-19 Tests (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: 33. To ask the Minister for Health the steps being taken to ensure a proactive and robust testing and tracing regime to support the plan for living with Covid-19; the way in which Ireland compares with the EU and other comparator states such as New Zealand in terms of testing and tracing capacity and performance by tests per capita; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23640/20]

Priority Questions: Covid-19 Tests (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: This question relates to testing and tracing. Testing and tracing are the foundation of getting everything right over the next number of months. We have been asking the Government for some time to ramp up testing and tracing. In fact, the calls we made were rubbished and dismissed by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste in the past. We now see that we were right and we are paying the price...

Priority Questions: Covid-19 Tests (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: The plan announced today will only be effective if we get testing and tracing right. It will not be worth the paper it is written on if the failures of recent times continue. That is not to say testing has not been happening because it has, but it has not been happening at the rates at which it should be happening and it is not quick enough, despite all the promises that were made. We have...

Priority Questions: Covid-19 Tests (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: Testing and tracing are the way to stay ahead of the virus.

Priority Questions: Covid-19 Tests (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: Of course, when people were in lockdown the numbers were going to go down. My point is that it was pointed out that when the economy started to reopen we would see more community transmission and the virus would look for places to spread. That is what happened. The way to prevent that, because prevention is what we need, is to ratchet up testing and tracing. The Government failed to do it...

Priority Questions: Health Services (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: I am very conscious of the most vulnerable people and I am very conscious they are people we have to protect over the next weeks and months. It is not good enough that the HSE is only finalising a plan. We have an unprecedented crisis facing us. Although we thought we saw chaos over recent weeks and months, unless this Government get its act together, unless a real, aggressive, robust plan...

Priority Questions: Health Services (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: The Minister of State gives me a figure of €600 million and no detail of what that will mean. I published a plan in the first week of August and we set out what is necessary. The last figures we got from the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, showed 610,000 people - record numbers - waiting to see a consultant. They showed that inpatient and outpatient waiting times were up and...

Gnó na Dála - Business of Dáil (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: I fully accept the Ceann Comhairle's explanation-----

Gnó na Dála - Business of Dáil (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: The issues that were raised by Deputies are reasonable. Deputy Kelly raised the question of how the decision was communicated to the Ceann Comhairle but the bigger concern for me was the fact that the first I learned of the Dáil being recalled this evening was on the six o'clock news when the Taoiseach spoke about it. Political correspondents seem to have more information than we did....

Priority Questions: Health Services (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: 31. To ask the Minister for Health the measures he has undertaken or will undertake as part of the winter plan to protect capacity in the health service, to ensure maximum possible uptake of the flu vaccine, secure sufficient staffing levels and bed availability, deliver Covid-19, non-Covid-19 and catch-up care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23639/20]

Priority Questions: Health Services (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: My question relates to the very serious challenge that acute hospitals in our health service will face over the next number of months. We have been hearing for some time from the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, that he will produce a winter plan. By the way, I want to wish him well and I very much hope that a negative result comes back. He has said that he will produce a...

Gnó na Dála - Business of Dáil (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: It was about the communication. Nobody questioned-----

Gnó na Dála - Business of Dáil (15 Sep 2020)

David Cullinane: The Deputy is not being honest and truthful.