Results 12,161-12,180 of 45,510 for speaker:Simon Harris

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: The Government has not yet agreed a plan but I expect that it will do so at its meeting tomorrow. I expect that the Taoiseach will be in a position to share that plan with this House and the country, possibly as soon as tomorrow. The plan will be guided by the recommendations of the National Public Health Emergency Team. We will follow public health advice first, second and third. The...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: The percentage of our population that has been tested is currently the sixth highest in the European Union. I have lost my document about that but we are currently very high up in the context of number of people here who have been tested. We are ramping up and significantly expanding our testing this week, next week and the week after, which I think will see many more people tested. We...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I will ask for the HSE or the Department to respond to the Deputy in writing on this matter in the coming days. I want to be clear that nobody is meant to be profiteering as a result of this. The whole purpose here is to ensure that nobody can make a profit and we pay solely according to the cost-only open-book model. We were in a very lucky position to be able to acquire the use of these...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Paul Murphy. I have done everything I can to be transparent in relation to this. First, payment will be on a cost only open-book model whereby the hospitals will be reimbursed only for the operating costs properly incurred during the period. The costs that will be covered will be limited to normal costs of operating the hospital. Since the rationale for the arrangement...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I must check where the review is because I know it was ready to go to Cabinet.

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: It is completed and it was due to go before the Cabinet. The question is whether it is appropriate to bring it now or if it should wait for a new Government. I think it would be appropriate to bring it now. I will check that and come back to Deputy Shortall. I will meet with Mental Health Reform before we next meet. I am scheduled to meet Jigsaw as well. I think it is on next Thursday....

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: As the Deputy knows, HIQA has started its visits to nursing homes, both private and public. It published a new assessment framework, I think last Tuesday, and it has started those visits. HIQA is the regulator. It has a direct line to me and I meet it at least once or twice a week. It is in a position to highlight any issues of concern it may have. I repeat and stand by the comments I...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: The public have put in an extraordinary effort, but those in the HSE have done so as well. I have watched them move mountains to try to robustly put in place a testing process from something that did not exist previously, and they have done a very good job. We all share the frustration and we want to be further on than we are - I agree absolutely. Yet, when we look at the international...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Duncan Smith. I agree with his views about transparency and the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET. Minutes of meetings are kept and published. NPHET makes recommendations, but I remain the decision maker on Government policy and am accountable to this House, to be clear. I have not gone against any of the recommendations from NPHET, nor do I intend to, because I...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I would like to follow up the issue of any questions not being answered with the Deputy directly. I assure him that this is not the case. The Taoiseach and I met his party leader yesterday for two hours, as we generally do once a week. We also have the HSE briefing, two hours of questions and statements in this House, and a daily press conference with the Chief Medical Officer to update...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I am pleased we are in a position in the Dáil where Deputies can ask when we can recommence elective work because if one looks at the modelling, as of today, had we not lowered the reproductive rate for this virus from just over 2.0 to where it is now, we would have seen 2,200 people in our ICUs today and would be in a very dire situation. That is not to take away from the very...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: Staffing is a major issue. I know Deputy Heydon has raised this with me. There are four ways we are trying to assist nursing homes: through the direct redeployment of HSE staff; an agreement reached in recent days with home care providers to allow home care staff to be redeployed; to ensure a faster turnaround time for testing for staff and a priority for that so that the many staff who do...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I am conscious that people at home watch these proceedings and hear the questions that are put but do not have access to written replies I send to Deputies. We must divide the allocated time better. I came here to answer questions. If I do not know the answer to a question, I will revert to the Deputy in writing, but I need some time to answer the questions orally.

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I ask that the allocated time be divided properly. Deputy Ward raised the issue of Jigsaw. I am due to meet its representatives on Thursday and I will revert to the Deputy thereafter. Mental health, particularly youth mental health, is a key priority. We wish to support Jigsaw in what it is doing. Deputy Paul Donnelly is correct in the context of ASD. The reality is that many children...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I have approximately three minutes. The Deputy raised a number of matters and I will write to her about some of them in the interests of time, as she has asked me to. The number of staff redeployed to nursing homes moves up and down and I saw a number of over 200. The number was 61 last week but I will send the Deputy the figures broken down by community healthcare organisation. I do not...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I will send a written note on the last one. I imagine it might come up in conversations here anyway.

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: On the issue of home care workers' PPE and nursing home workers' PPE, over the past seven days, from 23 April to 29 April, 6.63 million items of PPE have been delivered across the health service. Some 54% of this volume was delivered to community residential facilities in 1,767 individual deliveries. As for the full distribution, 54%, as I said, went there and 8% went to home care. I had a...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising these two important matters, which are both linked to the provision of non-Covid-19 healthcare. He has hit the nail on the head on a very important issue. In this country as in many others we have all been preparing for the pandemic to take a certain course of action: to come, to reach a very high peak with huge human consequences in terms of deaths and very...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements (30 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I welcome this opportunity to update the House once again on the Covid-19 disease and our national response to it. I will begin by providing an update on our modelling work. I am pleased to say that the R number, which we have been talking about for several weeks, has remained stable at 0.5 to 0.8. That is quite an achievement by the people of this country. By now, Deputies know what...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (Resumed) (23 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: We have cancelled and closed many things including pubs, rugby matches and so on, on the basis of people doing what is good for them, their staff, the public -----