Results 14,801-14,820 of 45,539 for speaker:Simon Harris

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: I will ask my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, to comment on this in a moment. The Deputy probably will not mind as much if he comments on it now, in light of his recent political decision.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: I am very sad about his decision but the Deputy may be very happy about it. As the Deputy knows, the Minister of State has taken an active interest and has led for me on this issue because he is a representative of the constituency. Deputy Murphy O'Mahony has rightly continued to highlight this issue and I thank her for doing so. I will answer with regard to the national children's...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: Some 250 projects are included in the capital plan we have published. One of these is the national children's hospital and 249 are other projects.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: The national children's hospital will therefore have no impact on Bantry General Hospital. The announcements we made on that great day on which we visited Bantry with the Deputy will absolutely stand. The Minister of State will now go into the specifics.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: I will ask the chief clinical officer, Dr. Henry, to address the vaccine and how it differs from that offered previously. We will launch the HSE influenza campaign next Thursday and will encourage healthcare professionals and those in at-risk groups to avail of the vaccination. I am encouraged by the significant and welcome increase in the number of people over the age of 65 who got the flu...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: I welcome the Deputy's support for our plans to extend access to free GP care for children. It will ultimately be extended to children under the age of 12. I want the parents of primary school children not to have to worry about the cost of going to the GP. The budget will decide the pace at which we can do that. The Taoiseach and I have publicly stated that we would like to extend it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: Every child with cancer is automatically entitled to a medical card.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: Adults do not have automatic entitlement to a medical card on the basis of on an illness. Applicants are assessed on financial grounds and for the discretionary medical card. If one does not qualify on financial grounds, one may qualify on medical grounds under the discretionary application process. The number of discretionary medical cards issued continues to increase month on month, as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: He is. He highlighted his difficulty in navigating the medical card system. I also had a very good meeting with representatives of the Irish Cancer Society. I have asked Mr. Wall and certain other stakeholders, including the Irish Cancer Society, to meet the primary care reimbursement service, PCRS, and consider providing better patient information on how people with an illness can...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: I acknowledge that the committee is very busy, but the new head of the PCRS section of the HSE is eager to engage with stakeholders. The committee may wish to meet representatives of the PCRS and the medical card section and provide feedback. We constantly try to improve our processes. The HSE has done a very good job in going online with medicalcard.ie. When I first visited the medical...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: While I do not want to eat into anyone's time, I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, for his leadership in reforming the homecare system. I hope he will still be in place in May 2020. We can try to progress the statutory homecare scheme. I assure the Deputy that in the context of our winter planning and budget 2020, additional resources for homecare services will be an absolute...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: On her point about the WHO, I assure Deputy O'Connell that we take our obligations very seriously. We are investing a lot in training doctors to be sent back to developing countries, but I take the Deputy's point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: No, we actually fulfil our WHO obligations in this way, but I take the Deputy's point. I would like to put some figures on the record of this committee, because I believe they are important. I accept there is a challenge in respect of recruitment and retention and that pay parity needs to be addressed. I have said that, I believe it, and I do not disagree with Deputy O'Connell in that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: The behaviour of large tobacco companies in moving into this space is unethical and despicable. They are targeting our children. It is clear what they are doing. Large cigarette companies, which know the war on tobacco is under way and that we are heading towards a tobacco-free Ireland, are mooching into a new area. I was in a petrol station a few nights ago. Some time ago, the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: I hear the Chairman very clearly and in the strongest possible terms. I ask Mr. Woods to update us on the HSE's position on how we advance this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: I know that a number of colleagues will want to bring this up, and I am more than happy for them to do so. To be helpful and constructive, I ask the chief executive to arrange for the HSE to have a meeting, as well as its meeting with midwest representatives, within a fortnight to discuss issues in the hospital in Limerick and in the hospital group, specifically the issue of the MRI scanner....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: I hope, politics aside, that the Chairman does not doubt the commitment I attach to the urgent needs of our patients. Nobody has a monopoly of concern or compassion for them. In the Chairman's region, when he and others approached me and said they could not wait for the capital plan and that something had to be done about bed capacity in Limerick, we went ahead together and found the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: I am addressing it urgently. I hope the committee and the Oireachtas will help me to deliver the bits that are not just the nice fluffy bits. We can all say we are in favour of more homecare services - Sláintecare - and dismantling the HSE, which is the right thing to do. The HSE and the excellent people who work in it know that its current structure is not configured correctly. It...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: I am having a meeting tomorrow with Deputy Cullinane and Oireachtas Members from Waterford on a cross-party basis. I respect the way they work on a cross-party basis on issues of importance in the south east as it is effective. I am very aware of concerns of people in the south east over this issue. They have a new state-of-the art facility in the shape of the Dunmore wing, which will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: I thank Senator Kieran O'Donnell for consistently raising the issues in regard to the mid-west. The Senator is correct in terms of his remarks in regard to the 60-bed modular unit. I know we are only as good as the next thing we can do for this region and that it is important that we do an awful lot more. I get that. We do have a plan to increase bed capacity by 150 or more, with the...