Results 12,201-12,220 of 45,510 for speaker:Simon Harris

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I am sorry. I heard the Deputy ask about clusters. I could not hear her properly.

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: That is not my understanding. I will confirm that in writing but it is not my understanding. In regard to private hospitals, I issued a letter through my Department to the HSE about the importance of continuity of care. One cannot just wash one's hands of one's patient. Whether it is a public or a private hospital, there is a continuity of care duty. Our doctors take that very...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for his questions. We are operating in a time when we are trying to do a great deal simultaneously and at speed. Normally, many of the matters we are discussing - redeploying staff from one place to the other, for example - would take months of negotiation. We are now doing them day in, day out with the WHO's mantra in mind, that is, speed trumps perfection. It has to....

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I do not know what the cost has been in relation to Aer Lingus, but I will check it out and revert to the Deputy. As he rightly said, its staff have done heroic work. I thank the crews, pilots and everyone else who have left their families and flown out there to do this. They have done the country a great service. I do not know the answer - I am being honest - but I will come back to...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank Dr. Berry. It is good to have his expert opinion as well. In relation to that scheme, it will open tomorrow. The CEO of the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, had a conversation with the head of Nursing Homes Ireland this week anyway in that regard but it will open tomorrow. I thank Deputy Berry for bringing that up. In relation to St. Fintan's, Portlaoise, I can only...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: First, I will not make any partisan political comments. I used to be an awfully partisan politician and, really, this pandemic teaches one that everybody in this House in all parties and none is working their very best to save lives. That has been my experience of engagement with people here. I think we are very lucky to have Dr. Tony Holohan, a public health specialist, as the Chief...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: At the outset I just want to say that we will need to have a very serious conversation about the way we care for older people at the end of this pandemic. The Deputy is 100% correct that the current model is not fit for purpose. I would love to talk about that for longer; we do not have the time now but it is not fit for purpose. On the issue of transparency, Deputy Shortall has been...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I will start with the Deputy's last question. I believe this has exposed a great inequality that exists in society. While I do not yet have data, I do not need them to tell me that it is harder to isolate in crowded accommodation. I do not need the data to tell me that vulnerable people living in congregated settings are more at risk or that it is more difficult to ask those who are...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: We support the WHO and I hope and believe there is a political consensus in this House in that regard. The Tánaiste, Deputy Coveney, today announced that we are quadrupling our normal annual financial contribution to the WHO this year to €9.5 million. That is right and proper. It is the very least we can do. It is a global pandemic. The WHO is doing incredible work. Our own...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for his question and for his public service in agreeing to go back to the front line, though we hope there is no surge. Before I address the Be On Call For Ireland initiative, I should point out that we are hiring people in other ways. More than 4,000 student nurses have now been given offers of paid employment as healthcare assistants, which will be a huge help to those...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: There is absolutely no doubt that this virus does not discriminate in terms of age, gender or where someone lives in our country. However, we know that it has a significant impact on people of a certain age. Very sadly, nine out of ten deaths in our country, some 91%, have been people over the age of 65. Roughly two thirds of deaths have been people with underlying health conditions. This...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy. I dealt with the question of the Chief Medical Officer's comments on restrictions from Deputy McNamara earlier but it is important to say that, when putting widespread national restrictions in place, it comes from the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, and from our clinicians. I stand by the judgment of the Chief Medical Officer. To be clear, he never said...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I am sorry. On the issue of swabs, to be clear, I have asked the HSE and it is my understanding from the HSE that swabs do not expire and were not discarded. The backlog, as the Deputy knows, has been processed with the assistance of a German laboratory and additional laboratory capacity here. We are now seeing, on average, 1,200 swab requests per day from our GPs. That does not include...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Butler for her questions and the work she has done on this. The HSE informs me there are approximately 1,250 PPE deliveries to nursing homes and residential units every week and that the deliveries consist of 2,500 to 3,000 cartons and pallets, providing in excess of 1 million pieces of PPE per week to nursing homes and residential units. The Deputy is right to highlight an...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for those questions. I will try to deal with them sequentially. Regarding the mortality rate, the first point I would make is that, in a pandemic, one can often see its flattening lagging behind some of the other indicators. We are now beginning to see our ICU and hospital admissions and our growth rate beginning to go in the right way, but our mortality rate is not....

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: The Deputy is kind of cutting across me.

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I am not sure I am happy to have important issues raised that I do not respond to on the record of the House. I will be brief, but we cannot raise important questions and then not seek the answers for the public watching.

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: That is the purpose of this session. Deputy Stephen Donnelly asked an important question about the current R number. I do not want to take Deputy Butler's time. Professor Philip Nolan will provide an update this evening, but I would like to share with the House that we now have four different methods for estimating R. The epidemiological modelling group is suggesting that the R number...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy McNamara for bringing this issue to my attention and that of the House. I will raise it with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and his Department and ask that they link back in with the Deputy directly.

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Pringle. I note the Deputy has some other questions to ask me later as well, which I will endeavour to answer. On the community health organisations, I do not have details in relation to specific risk assessments that were carried out but I will certainly check, get that detail and revert to Deputy Pringle today in respect of it. What I can tell the Deputy is that HIQA is...