Results 18,201-18,220 of 45,622 for speaker:Simon Harris

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: The Secretary General of my Department reports to me and he kept me briefed at the appropriate junctures. I published all of those documents in advance. The good news is that the PwC timeline tallies with that. There are two interesting points in the report regarding the governance issue. One is that while it states the governance structure was complex, it also states that it did not...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: Yes, that is correct. I do not want to name them here. Even though we have privilege, I am conscious the board will have to consider all of these matters. We depend on professional expertise to give accurate, factual information. We hire such firms because we do not have the expertise ourselves. We can then scrutinise them and bring in other people and other experts to look at that...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: I did.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: I accept responsibility for the challenges with this project. I will explain why. If I was coming in here today and the project was ahead of schedule and €200 million under budget I would be taking credit for that, and so would the Deputy if he was the Minister. The good has to be taken with the bad in government. We put experts in place and so did my predecessors. They were good,...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: I appointed the board and I accept the responsibility in that regard. While we are on the issue of political responsibility, I have to make the point that I had to make a major political judgment call in December with Government colleagues. I was given three options, namely, to proceed, retender or pause. They were the three options I was given.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: I considered them-----

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: The Deputy is an honest enough person to say that, but there are other people in this House, and let the record show it clearly, who said, if not in this committee room then certainly on the floor of the Dáil, that I made the wrong decision. They said I should have paused it, retendered it or moved the site. We have brought in financial auditors who found that the Government and I did...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: That is correct, so-----

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: Certainly-----

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: In fairness to my officials, because it is a select committee-----

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: That is the way it should be. I am accountable to the Oireachtas and my officials are accountable to me. I am satisfied that my officials behaved entirely appropriately during this and the reason I am satisfied is because the PwC report does not find anything to the contrary and actually finds that their work, and this is my clear interpretation of what it found, was impeded and impaired as...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: I accept the bona fides of my officials. Nowhere in the report does it suggest that there was a difficulty with information flow. In fact, it actually states: "Despite the complex governance structures there was not an issue with information flow".

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: Just as I accept political responsibility, as does the Government, the board members have to accept responsibility, which I am sure they do, for the decisions they made. The report is clear, and I agree with the Deputy on this point, that the governance structures need to be strengthened. The board will need to be strengthened and I will act on that as well. There is also an interesting...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: Of that there is no doubt, but how we strengthen that is the question for us all.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Durkan. I reiterate that that was the basis on which I made the decision for the repeat smear test, namely, to endeavour to provide reassurance women were already seeking. Whether I issued a press release or did it or not, they were going to seek reassurance because women make their own decisions about their own healthcare. I thought that was a place we had moved to in this...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: I very much take on board the Deputy's points and we will consider them in the context of our response to the report.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for her questions. On the issue of cervical cancer, it is something on which we are all united. We can effectively eradicate it. There are many diseases about which we cannot say this, but it is one we can eradicate. I used to refer to the huge progress made in Australia and New Zealand, but now I need only refer to Scotland, a much nearer neighbour. I was only reading...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: I will reflect on how best to get that message across. The HSE, in fairness to it, is a good organisation that gets much criticism for many issues. It has stepped up in promoting vaccination and the national immunisation office has done a good job with powerful patient advocates on the issue of cervical cancer and we think particularly of the late Ms Laura Brennan who did so much. We...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: I need to be careful because, while we have privilege here, I do not want to say anything that could undermine a decision that may or may not be made. The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has contracts for professional services with professional bodies on our behalf, effectively, as taxpayers. My initial reading of this report from PwC, which was brought in as a financial...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: I will try and take those questions in sequence. The Chairman is correct that there is not a specific transition fund in this year's Estimate and that is a fact. There are a number of areas where significant resources are being spent on Sláintecare measures, which I believe passionately in. The culture change that needs to happen, and is happening, in the HSE and the Department means...