Results 1,281-1,300 of 7,823 for speaker:Jim Daly

Written Answers — Department of Health: Suicide Incidence (13 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: As this is a service matter I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Nursing Homes Support Scheme Review (13 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: The proposed policy change to the Nursing Homes Support Scheme (NHSS), to cap contributions based on farm and business assets at 3 years where a family successor commits to working the productive asset, has been approved by Government. My Department developed draft Heads of Bill while considering a number of complex ancillary policy and operational matters which may need to be addressed in...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I know the Deputy is not suggesting this, but I am not trying to defend anything. I am only trying to put it as it is. I cannot answer his last two questions because they are outside of my remit. One of the questions he asked me concerned the four-month wait for approval of an application for carer's allowance. That is the responsibility of the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I agree very much with the Deputy on the issue of communications from the HSE. I have spoken to the HSE about this nationally and I am anxious to speak to the executive locally because there are some conflicting accounts and some confusion. It is not the case that everyone in this room is imagining things. We all know there are communications coming from the HSE that are not altogether...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: The Deputy has asked me why I cannot wipe out the waiting list of 6,000. I am certainly not justifying it. I have made no attempt to do so or to suggest that I have no difficulty with a waiting list of 6,000. It just happens to be a matter of fact that I used in answering-----

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: If the Deputy wishes to enter into that kind of debate, I could remind her that the waiting list was also there when she was doing this job. However, I will not go down that-----

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: The Deputy was a Minister of State in the Department of Health. Anyway, I am not interested in going down that road with her on the politics side of things. If she wants to lay it on me personally, that is fine, and I have no difficulty-----

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I will answer if the Deputy allows me. I do not have to hand an estimate of the additional travel costs from the HSE yet. At present the HSE has an ad hocarrangement in the individual CHOs with the unions. They have agreed blanket hours so they will all have, I imagine, a different cost to submit to me that I will be able to ascertain next week. However, they knew last year about the cost...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: The Deputy will have to address that question to the Minister. I do not have responsibility for the HSE or its performance reports or the publishing of them on the website. Did the Deputy have another question other than her statements? Besides that question, I think she just made statements. The Deputy is entitled-----

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: Yes. I have no difficulty whatsoever doing that for the Deputy.

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: Is this my final contribution?

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I do not have all the micro-details the Deputy seeks, such as the cost of private staff versus public staff. I would have to come back to the Deputy on that. The Government increased the budget by €30 million and committed to an increase in home help hours of 800,000 this year in addition to what was done last year. I expect that to be delivered by the HSE, and that is my input from...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I thank all the Deputies for their contributions and for bringing this issue to the floor of the House. I very much welcomed the opportunity to, I hope, add some clarity. If I have not done so, or if I have not answered the questions the Deputies asked, I apologise. I am as eager and as anxious as any Deputy to try to get answers. The Government's principal aim is to ensure that funding...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: A co-payment does not involve charging for home help hours. Rather, it is the case that those who can afford to make a contribution based on their means will do so in a manner similar to how the fair deal scheme is currently processed.

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: That is essentially a management issue. A system must be put in place to regulate it. I agree that it must be very annoying for those delivering the service to only be able to get 12 hours if they want to do more. It is possible that there may be three or four home helps in a small area and a limited number of hours in that area, whereas in a more built-up area there may be more hours...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: No, I do not agree. I would not stand over a system that would allow a person to linger in a bed just to avoid it being taken by another patient. There is a cost to the State in terms of pounds, shillings, and pence, but there is a far bigger potential cost in the context of a person's health if he or she is not treated in a timely manner. We must consider our duty of care. To be fair to...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I set up a group within the HSE, chaired by Mr. Graham Knowles, to examine the position regarding delayed discharges and I commissioned an independent report on the matter last year. This is a very interesting matter around which we are trying to get our heads because it cuts across the community and acute sectors. We are trying to ensure that timely discharges are a fact of life and trying...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: Depending on the level of acuity, it may take some time to put a package together. It may be necessary to get two or three home helps into a house. The package must be put together. One cannot just flick a switch and make a home help package available at short notice. Obviously, there are also funding implications. There are many other issues which affect delayed discharges, such as...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I have been a practising politician in the constituency of Cork South-West for 15 years and I am very familiar with how the home help system there works. That letter could have been produced last year, the year before or the year before that because-----

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: If I may answer the question. Such a letter may issue in any month of any year because there are 6,000 people waiting for home help. Its being issued does not meant that there is an embargo or freeze on home help. It is continually the case that when people no longer need home help, it is coming back into the system. Some 800,000 additional hours were added to the system this year....