Results 13,261-13,280 of 45,510 for speaker:Simon Harris

An Bille um an Naoú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Ceart chun Sláinte), 2019: An Dara Céim [Comhaltaí Príobháideacha] - Thirty-ninth Amendment of the Constitution (Right to Health) Bill 2019: Second Stage [Private Members] (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: Deputy Collins referred to a definition provided by the World Health Organization, WHO. I am sure he and certain of his colleagues also understand its position on women's reproductive rights and the right to choose.

An Bille um an Naoú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Ceart chun Sláinte), 2019: An Dara Céim [Comhaltaí Príobháideacha] - Thirty-ninth Amendment of the Constitution (Right to Health) Bill 2019: Second Stage [Private Members] (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I am allowed to comment politically in the House as I wish. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the Bill. I very much appreciate Deputy Harty's intention in bringing it forward. I fully accept his bona fides and I share his ambition, as do all Members, to bring about universal healthcare through Sláintecare. I wish to make clear to the Deputy and the House that I have an...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cancer Screening Programmes (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I do not have the report in front of me but I may have some of the material from it. This information was requested by women and their families, and by a number of Deputies, including, principally, the Deputy herself. The report was finalised in September following engagement between the HSE and the 221+ patient support group. The report was prepared by a group of four specialists with...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cancer Screening Programmes (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: Yes.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cancer Screening Programmes (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I cannot agree with the Deputy use of words such as "substandard", because I have to base my assessment on the reports and analyses that have been conducted. Dr. Scally found significant failures in Quest Diagnostics and MedLab not informing the scoping inquiry of all the locations used at the earliest opportunities. There were also issues relating to appropriate accreditation, which I...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Emergency Departments Waiting Times (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for turning up to ask this question. So far today, three Opposition Members who tabled questions have not turned up to ask them, which is interesting. In fairness, I am not criticising the Deputy, who is ably deputising for her colleague but there were three other questions that the Opposition never bothered to turn up to ask me.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Emergency Departments Waiting Times (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: There must be something important happening to which I was not invited. The number of patients attending emergency departments has increased this year with the result that the hospital system is currently operating at close to full capacity. HSE figures show that for the first ten months of 2019 the number of patients attending Cork University Hospital increased by 3.5% and the number of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Emergency Departments Waiting Times (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I am in daily contact, often several times a day, with the most senior members of the HSE, including the CEO and the chief operating officer, as well as with the CEOs of the hospital groups on occasion, the director of the acute hospitals and many others, along with senior members of my own management team. We engage several times a day on the situation in the acute hospitals, as one would...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Emergency Departments Waiting Times (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I agree with the Deputy regarding Bantry Hospital. The Minister of State, Deputy Daly, is due to meet management of the hospital on 2 December. The Deputy is correct that we need to continue to make that hospital busier and to invest more in it, which is our intention. She is also correct that there is a need for more capacity in Cork generally. That is why we are funding a new elective...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cancer Screening Programmes (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: In fairness to the Deputy, we have now reached a position where four Opposition Members have failed to turn up to ask their questions. I do not know where they could be or what is more important than asking the questions they have tabled in the Dáil. The Deputy's question relates to the statistical difference between laboratories vis-à-visthe number of slides reviewed as a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cross-Border Health Initiatives (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I agree with the Deputy. The only slight caveat I will offer - I know he will agree with me on this - is that there is additional capacity in some of our smaller public hospitals as well, including in the Deputy's own constituency. He has spoken to me about this. I refer to Cavan hospital and particularly Monaghan hospital. We should be and indeed we are asking the NTPF and the HSE to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cross-Border Health Initiatives (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising this question and I know of his particular interest as this is a matter he has raised in this House on a number of occasions. I very much appreciate the importance of the cross-border directive and we have worked very hard, in the context of Brexit, to make sure cross-border healthcare, and healthcare North and South on this island, and east and west, can...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cross-Border Health Initiatives (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I agree with Deputy Smith, who is correct. My understanding is that, roughly, there is now a waiting time for processing of applications of about two months and the office is processing applications for reimbursement received in September. I agree with the Deputy that the staff in the office, many of them I know and I hear this on a regular basis, are exceptionally helpful and go above and...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Healthcare Professionals (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I do not agree that it is being done very slowly in the unwinding of this. I believe it is being done in quite an equitable way, favouring lower-paid public workers and people who have contracts with the State first. We are not just returning the money that was taken through the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009, FEMPI, which was taken by many Governments, 75% of...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Healthcare Professionals (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I agree with the Deputy on the generalists' model. We have already seen this begin to work in the new facility in Connolly Hospital Dublin in our new model of care around children. I do not see why that cannot be extended to other areas.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Healthcare Professionals (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I need to point out when discussing any issue that one would sometimes get the impression that there are fewer doctors working in the health service. There are in fact more. More consultants are working in the Irish health service this year than last year, and there was more last year than the year before that. There are many more now than when I became Minister for Health.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Healthcare Professionals (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I fully accept that we need more. The Deputy is correct that the Public Sector Pay Commission said that we need to address the issue of pay parity. I expect in the coming weeks - I am being quite specific in that regard - to have concrete proposals to put to the consultant body. What I am saying very clearly in this House is that the de Buitléir report said very clearly that we...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Healthcare Professionals (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I will bring forward concrete proposals in the coming weeks.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Accommodation Provision (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I wish all the candidates in all four by-elections the very best and I do not want to involve myself in that campaign.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Accommodation Provision (26 Nov 2019)

Simon Harris: I note reports of plans by a private company to build a private hospital in Swords. I have not met anyone involved with the development of this proposal. This is a time of unprecedented capital investment to develop our public health services under Project Ireland 2040. Our public health service was starved during the recessionary and somewhat during the Celtic tiger years of...