Results 18,261-18,280 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: I have to seek clarity on that; I do not want to mislead the Deputy. I will make the point that PwC was acting as a financial auditor, and the decision to locate the site was not entirely a financial decision. Nobody has ever suggested otherwise. There are different views, and I accept that. People watching this will have different views from the Government. However, the decision was...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: They are two separate issues. On page 4 of the report PwC comments on the two-stage process. Many people raised questions and asked whether it was the right process to use. It is one of the things PwC looked at. It said: "The two-stage procurement process used to award the contract for the construction of the children's hospital is a widely used approach and can deliver significant...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: That is the two-stage approach.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: It is not entirely accurate to say that my Department said that there was no further risk to the taxpayer from the guaranteed maximum price. That is not what the Government was apprised of. My comments to the committee were that residual risk was always flagged, particularly in relation to further user changes, but also on the issue of inflation. It is fair to say-----
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: -----that the possibility of residual risk was always highlighted; it is not a total divergence. User changes to the project were always exempt from the guaranteed maximum price. It also includes things outside our control. I do not want to bring Brexit into everything, but the PwC report references the risks it poses in terms of access to supplies. It would be-----
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: There is still far too much risk around future cost rises to this project. The Deputy asked us to ask it if there was a way of reducing the cost of the project. It came back and said that there may be technical ways of doing that, but that the board should be putting its effort into reducing the risk of further cost rises arising from this. That is where the focus needs to be. People...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: I accept the report, to be clear, but I am not willing to concede yet on the potential for cost reduction. The report does say that it is technically possible to reduce costs, in both the summary and on page 75. However, there is a caveat that if that was done other difficulties might arise for the project. It says that a value engineering report could be carried out, but it might create...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: There is no provision in this year's Estimates for the maternity hospital and there is no point in me suggesting there is. There is, however, some money for the theatres at the Coombe Hospital.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: It would be highly desirable to move ahead with it. There are funding priorities and we have had discussions about capital. I would not want to mislead the committee by suggesting we have the funding to do it. We need to have another look at it as the year progresses. There are many sceptics out there, though I know the Deputy is not one, but there is no doubt that we are going to build...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: We have approximately two months of data so far and they suggest it is on profile but there are emerging pressures and getting the pay and numbers strategy right is key. I am in no way complacent about it and a lot of hard work is being done to ensure the HSE does repeat last year's performance.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: My very clear understanding from GPs and my officials was that women were making the decision to seek reassurance. They were going to go to their GPs for that reassurance but their GP would have not been able to provide clarity on what might happen. A two-tier system was emerging in which women who could afford it could have it. There was a risk of further undermining confidence in the...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: There were a mixture to some extent. This was a reassurance mechanism but, as Minister for Health, I cannot put myself in that consultation room. I trusted women and their doctors, together, to make what they believed to be the appropriate decision. I did not want a situation where some women could access a repeat smear and others could not or where a doctor believed it was appropriate but...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: That is a very helpful clarification because it gives us an insight into what was actually happening.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: Yes.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: I thank Deputy O'Brien for providing me with the opportunity to do that. The first thing it is worth saying is that I accept that two thirds of the backlog is made up of out-of-cycle smears where women decided, as we went through the process, in consultation with their GP for reassurance, to seek another smear test. One third, or one in three, of those is made up of new women entering the...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: Yes.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: No. We are continuing to look to and explore every opportunity. The other issue that will come into play, and a clinician will explain it much better than I will, is the benefit that the introduction of HPV testing will have in reducing the demand on cytology. There is an interplay in that regard between the introduction of HPV testing and the positive benefit that can have on capacity....
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: I had an opportunity, with Senator Devine, to meet some of the residents this morning. There is no way of avoiding the fact that when a person lives very near a large construction project, that causes upheaval for local residents and a great deal of difficulty for the local community. I know we all understand that. My understanding is that there is a structure set up for engagement between...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: I thank Deputy O'Brien for this question. I know he is a strong advocate on this issue. He is right to say that some progress has been made in terms of the waiting time from referral to assessment, but he is asking what is happening in regard to the assessment to treatment aspect.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019) Simon Harris: Four days, yes.