Results 1-20 of 45 for other and baby speaker:Simon Harris

Acknowledgement and Apology to the Families and to the Victims of the Stardust Tragedy: Statements (23 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I join with you by welcoming to the House the Stardust families who are gathered here with us in the Chamber and in the Public Gallery. I know there have been many times when you thought this day would never come, over far too many years. I know that you were forced to endure a living nightmare which began when your loved ones were so cruelly snatched from you in...

Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019: Second Stage (12 Dec 2019)

Simon Harris: I thank Members for their comprehensive contributions and the wide support for the legislation. There will be detailed scrutiny of it at the Select Committee on Health in the new year and there will be an opportunity to fine-tune the legislation and tease out, discuss and debate a number of the issues. It is heartening for patients and staff across the health service to see that cross party...

Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019: Second Stage (12 Dec 2019)

Simon Harris: ...heralds a new era for the health service. This House will be familiar with some of the issues that have arisen within our health service in recent years that have, quite rightly, led to demands for improvements in patient safety. Any patient safety incident significantly affects patients' lives and impacts on their families. Quite often, that pain is compounded by poor communication. ...

Seanad: HSE Capital Plan 2019: Statements (23 Oct 2019)

Simon Harris: I thank Senators for their very informative contributions and the questions they posed. I thank Senator Swanick for his comments. I agree with him on the importance of the district hospital and community hospital networks. I see a role for community and smaller hospitals in alleviating the pressure on larger hospitals. That is not about putting an emergency department into every hospital;...

Seanad: Genetic Testing: Motion (10 Jul 2019)

Simon Harris: It is important to state that we are not standing still in Ireland. I would hate anyone to think that. In an Irish context, we have already started the ball rolling in the right direction. As the Senator indicated, a national screening committee will be established this year. The mind boggles that we have never had one before but we will now have a national screening committee in our...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: I fully agree with that. I believe the Deputy and I agree on this. The lock them up mentality has dominated many of our debates on tackling difficult social issues - lock them up, brush the problem under the carpet, pretend it does not exist and send it abroad. We have heard all sorts of different versions when people have come upon hard times in this country. We must face up to drug...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medicinal Products Regulation (9 Apr 2019)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 372 to 375, inclusive, together. This Department continues to liaise with the HSE and the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), as well as other stakeholders, to help address concerns raised over the use of sodium valproate, also known as Epilim. As part of its Valproate Response Project, the HSE undertook a communication programme in 2018 to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion
Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (6 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: ...here bizarrely, is that people measure the health service through a very limited prism. I accept there are access challenges in respect of getting into the health service. That is a valid and fair criticism but if one looks at survival rates for cancer, for strokes, for heart attacks, life expectancy being above the EU average and the fact that a baby girl born in a hospital across the...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (13 Dec 2018)

Simon Harris: Of course, any baby born in a hospital should be given all the supports of a neonatal unit. This is "without extraordinary life-sustaining measures". For these reasons, and based on my engagements with some clinicians working on the roll-out of this service, the legal advice of the Attorney General and the other definitions in the Act, I do not propose to accept the amendment.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Simon Harris: I will not be in a position to accept this amendment proposed by Senators, which is, as acknowledged by Senators Ó Domhnaill and Mullen, virtually indistinguishable from an amendment on this subject put forward in the Dáil. While I can see that the amendments are proposed with the care of infants in mind and I do not dispute the Senators' bona fides on that either, the purpose of...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Simon Harris: .... The regulation of obstetric practice is not done through this piece of legislation. If it were done, I am sure the Senator would be coming forward with many amendments about how to care for the woman, and how she should be dealt with in this situation, but the Senator has not. The Senator recognises that this Bill does not regulate obstetric practice. There is no treatment plan or...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Simon Harris: ...live" is gravely offensive to the parents of children with fatal foetal abnormalities, women whose lives have been at risk which, of course, is one of the grounds for abortion the Senator opposes and women who are facing a serious risk of harm to their health. The circumstances to which the Senator has referred include these much wanted pregnancies. He has excluded early pregnancy which...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (10 Dec 2018)

Simon Harris: In response to Senator Mullen's initial comments, we can vehemently disagree on the content of this legislation, as I know we do, and still have a debate that is respectful and constructive, and, as he rightly says, does not seek to filibuster or delay. I look forward to engaging on that basis. I am not in a position to accept amendments Nos. 3 or 15 because these amendments, tabled by the...

Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Report Stage (Resumed) (29 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: ...Deputies for the debate. I am not in a position to accept this amendment which is indistinguishable from the amendment on the same subject put forward on Committee Stage. We had a long discussion and vote on that amendment then. While I can see that the amendment is proposed with the care of infants in mind - and I do not question the Deputy's bona fides in that regard at all - the...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Tóibín. I have great difficulty with this amendment for quite a few reasons. The first and the broad reason relates to our good discussion yesterday, which was of considerable length, about the issues of consent and of clinicians fulfilling their duties under the Medical Council guidelines. I struggle to believe that Doctor, or rather Deputy, Tóibín - a...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: ..., or certainly, recommendations were given in the all-party committee report on the eighth amendment in respect of ancillary recommendations. I hate the word "ancillary" because it somehow or other seems to suggest they were afterthoughts. They were not. They were fundamental to the deliberations of the committee. All of us who campaigned for a "Yes" vote stated we were going to...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: I presume Deputy Smith is being sarcastic because I know her views and record on this. I do not get Deputy Nolan's problem with it. I get that she is very sincere and I respect her right to have her view on abortion. She and I disagree on it and that is fine, and she has every right to hold her view, but I do not get why she has a difficulty with the Irish health service providing support....

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: ...birth". I think we all understood the policy intention - as a policymaker, I certainly did - that this was to ensure that the issue of fatal foetal abnormalities could be dealt with in our country and that arguments put forward by groups such as Terminations for Medical Reasons, TFMR, could be addressed. Those of us who campaigned for a “Yes” vote very clearly and...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: ...I came across also, is because each practitioner has to singularly do it. It is still a singular assessment, if the Deputy knows what I mean. The practitioner will have to assess the viability and the other person will also have to assess the viability. From the point of view of drafting, we are satisfied with that. The second part of the question was if the Deputy's understanding...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: There is probably great excitement that this woman is pregnant and going to have a baby but all of a sudden some terrible tragedy has hit the family whereby this woman is in a very dire situation, for which I know we all have compassion. That is the situation we are talking about, not the general situation without specific indication or pre-12 weeks so, in that sense, it is quite different....