Results 12,361-12,380 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Staff Data (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I may be wrong but I might be the first Taoiseach who is regularly criticised for not having enough advisers and experts in my Department. In terms of the structural changes that have been made, there is the Brexit group, which has six members of staff. Of course, behind them are the entire Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Taoiseach. We also have some people working on...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I spoke earlier on the threatened nurses strike and the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, answered the question on meningitis B so I will use my time to answer questions that have not been answered.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Boyd Barrett said that listening to me one would imagine that everything was fine in the health service, but I do not think that for a moment. Listening to him, one would think absolutely nothing at all is going right. Let me tell him about some of the things that are going right. The waiting times for operations and procedures in hospitals – hips, knees, eyes, cataracts and...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Cancer survival rates are improving, stroke survival rates and heart attack survival rates are improving. Suicide rates are going down while life expectancy is increasing. None of that has happened by accident. It has happened because the right policies and strategies have been put in place by the health service. They have been funded by the Government. It has also happened because of...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: No, I was just talking about patients.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I noted in Deputy Boyd Barrett’s lengthy speech on this issue that he did not mention patients at all.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: For me, patient outcomes should be at the centre of our concerns when it comes to the health service.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: If the Deputy did, it was fleeting because I did not hear it. I did not read Susan Mitchell's report but I have read the Sláintecare document, which recommends that we move towards integrated healthcare structures rather than the current system of hospital groups and community healthcare organisations. Hospitals will be combined with community services as part of the Sláintecare...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Sláintecare recommends structural change.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: People are very quick to criticise the Government for not implementing it but when we do, we are criticised as well. Either one is for Sláintecare or one is not. Sláintecare recommends this reform, namely, that we move towards integrated healthcare structures again.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: In terms of the rising costs of the children's hospital, my assessment is that the costs were underestimated in the first place but construction inflation has had a significant impact. Changes also had to be made to the sprinkler system-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----and the cost of the electrical engineering system in particular was much higher than had been intended.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The Department of Health is inquiring further into the issue. The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, which is the dedicated State agency set up to deliver the hospital, is available to come in and answer questions in detail. It will have the financial people working on the project do that at the Joint Committee on Health.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: He is happy to do it too.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: We are happy to do it too.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I am sure the Minister for Health will be asked all of these questions as well. There are other health projects under way, including the new national rehabilitation hospital in Dún Laoghaire, for example, and the new national forensic mental health hospital in Portrane. As things stand, those projects look like they are going to come in on time and on budget.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I accept that may change but for context, let us at least bear in mind that other national hospitals are being built-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----which are coming in around budget. In terms of the reprofiling or delays that may happen to other projects, that is still being worked out by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. We believe we will be able to do it in the context of a €5 billion capital budget for this year, which is 25% higher than last year, by reprofiling projects rather than cancelling them....

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Staff Data (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 8 together. There were 211.5 whole-time-equivalent staff working in my Department on 31 December 2018. That compares to a figure of 203.5 whole-time-equivalent staff on 31 December 2017. My Department is structured around seven main work areas. The breakdown of posts currently in each of these areas is as follows: there are 28 posts in the...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Commissions of Investigation (15 Jan 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I am at a bit of a disadvantage in answering these questions because it is an independent commission under Mr. Justice Cregan and I am not in charge of it. Rather, I am just the Minister named in the Act and, therefore, I do not know, nor can I know, many of the answers to the questions that people are asking. I have extended the commission's timeframe until the end of March 2019 and...