Results 14,621-14,640 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Order of Business (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I am glad the Deputy has confirmed what Fianna Fáil Deputies do every week.

Order of Business (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It has been enacted.

Order of Business (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I had hoped I had explained. I obviously did not but I will try again to explain the situation as I did earlier. A decision was taken in 2015 as part of a package of patient safety measures I announced, many of which have now happened. I have listed some of the measures that happened over the past two years. A lot has been done. At the time it was my intention to do mandatory open...

Order of Business (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It is still intended to do it. There are two reasons for the delay. First, the legislation, as I announced it in 2015, was to be the Health Information and Patient Safety Bill. To fast-track the mandatory open disclosure of serious reportable events, the Bill is to be split. The patient safety aspect is to be withdrawn in order that the Bill can be fast-tracked. The Minister will bring...

Order of Business (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: What was done, for example, was providing for voluntary open disclosure via the Civil Liability Act, as passed last year, and periodic payment. To move away from a system of awards of €15 million and €20 million, we now have periodic payment orders which allow payments to be made over a period of time and which can be reviewed as a patient's case changes. That legislation was...

Leaders' Questions (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I am still trying to figure out all the facts. I appreciate the Deputy's sentiment that decisions we make on this should be based on facts. We are really letting people down, particularly the women of Ireland, with regard to women's health if we make decisions that are not based on fact. We do not yet have all the facts. That is why we need to have the HIQA inquiry. That is why we need a...

Leaders' Questions (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: To clarify, in all 1,400 cases the original smears have been rechecked. The way the audit worked is that if a woman was diagnosed with cervical cancer between 2008 and 2014, they went back and checked all of the smear tests to see if there were false negatives or false positives. To reassure people, in all 1,400 cases those smear tests were rechecked already. That is the way this audit...

Leaders' Questions (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: On the first matter, the independent clinical panel that the Minister has established will offer an individual appointment with each of the 200 women affected and offer them the best advice in respect of their individual cases.

Leaders' Questions (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I was asked about audits. Since 2008, 3 million smear tests have been carried out by CervicalCheck. I do not believe it would be practical to repeat 3 million tests or recheck them and that may well not be warranted. The HSE has advised, however, that between 2008 and early 2018, 1,482 cervical cancer cases had been notified to CervicalCheck by the national cancer registry. The majority of...

Leaders' Questions (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I do not know if this was the only audit carried out. A clinical audit is a normal part of medical practice. Any doctor who wants to stay on the medical register has to be involved in a clinical audit; therefore, on any given day there are hundreds or perhaps even thousands of audits being carried out across the health service. There may well have been other audits carried out of cervical...

Leaders' Questions (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I do not, but my assumption is that other audits have been carried out. It is part of normal healthcare practice that clinical audits are carried out. Practice is checked and rechecked each cycle to see what can be learned. There are different audits that can be carried out. For those women who are concerned, the helpline is open to any of them who wants to make a call and seek...

Leaders' Questions (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate that. The basis on which the Deputy has called for the dismissal of Mr. Tony O'Brien is an assertion that the decision to outsource these tests to the US in 2008 somehow cost lives. I explained why that is not yet supported by the facts. Everyone, even Mr. Tony O'Brien, deserves a fair hearing before being condemned. We need to assess whether that decision was wrong. It may...

Leaders' Questions (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: These are not optional and one may be struck off for not following them. Open disclosure has been policy for all HSE staff since 2013. The Deputy is incorrect in that we commit to two actions in the programme for Government. The first is to legislate for voluntary open disclosure in all cases and the second is to legislate for mandatory open disclosure in cases of a serious reportable...

Leaders' Questions (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I first became aware of this issue on Thursday or Friday of last week. Obviously, I tried to spend as much of the weekend as I had free reading up on it and trying to understand it. Even now, I do not think it is the case that anyone or everyone in this House knows all the facts. That is why it is necessary to have the statutory inquiry that has been initiated by the Minister, Deputy...

Leaders' Questions (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: As I said, I am personally very angry that the women were not informed. They should have been. It was their health, their lives and their families and they had a right to know. We need to do everything we can to make sure this will never happen again. Patients should always be informed of clinical information pertinent to their case. I come from the medical profession. I am the...

Leaders' Questions (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I say once again how saddened I was to hear about the case of Vicky Phelan and emphasise the extent to which I feel for her and her family. I am full of sorrow that she was not diagnosed sooner and wish her and her family the very best on the difficult road ahead. I pay tribute to her for her bravery, particularly in calling on women and men to go for cancer screening which we know saves...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Strategic Communications Unit (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The estimate for spend to date for the SCU is €2.2 million. This spend is primarily associated with citizen focussed information campaigns such as: - Healthy Ireland - Global Ireland - Education Action Plan - Bliain Na Gaeilge - Self Employed Benefits - Legislation - Irish Aid - Project Ireland 2040 In addition, spend has been allocated to the Gov.ie migration, the citizen survey on...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Departmental Budgets (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: On 27 March 2018, the Government noted the comprehensive Review of the Operation of the Strategic Communications Unit (SCU) completed by the Secretary General to the Government, and accepted its recommendations. Following the publication of the Review, I informed the House (and the Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and the Taoiseach) that the 2018 funding...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Government Information Service (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: GIS will continue to have a co-ordinating and supporting role for national, cross-Government communications, as has always been the case. Such campaigns will now be led and funded by the relevant line Department.

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Strategic Communications Unit (1 May 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The citizen research will commence once the opposition parties have been afforded an opportunity to review the proposed material. It is anticipated that this review will be initiated in the coming weeks and the subsequent survey will issue in late May 2018. Once the survey has been run and results collected and analysed, it is intended to publish it.