Results 681-700 of 1,053,006 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív OR speaker:John Brady OR speaker:Louise O'Reilly OR speaker:Mattie McGrath OR speaker:Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire) in 'Committee meetings'

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I think there are two sides to this point. As discussed earlier, there is the side where we have people in Ireland who have health insurance out of fear. Everything we have been doing for the past four and a half years has been to move away from that and provide a public health service we can be incredibly proud of and that gives people brilliant care when they need it. At a simple level,...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: I welcome the Minister's response in providing clarity on how free HRT will be rolled out. If I am reading what the Minister has said right, there are any number of ways in which this could have been done, including providing free GP consultations, but what the Minister has gone for is free medicines and free products, stating this is the best way to do it. I would like clarity on this...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Danny Healy-Rae: I welcome the provisions for the ladies who reach the menopause age and they are very welcome. I hope it will be of benefit to all of them. I have other questions on the nurses protesting outside the hospital in Tralee today. I understand it is because of the embargo that started last November which is still carrying on. A girl who came home last March after a career break-----

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Catherine Connolly: Deputy, these are very specific amendments and I am going to have to hold you to them.

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: They are all on the topic of HRT.

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Catherine Connolly: There is limited time. There is a guillotine.

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Danny Healy-Rae: I will finish now.

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Catherine Connolly: I know but I have an obligation to tell you that we are discussing amendments and we must stick to them.

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Danny Healy-Rae: All of this is relevant to providing a service. If we do not have the nurses or GPs on board we cannot operate the service. The main question is why the Minister closed the ophthalmology unit in Tralee general hospital. There are 800 people on the waiting list there. If someone gets hit in the eye or something steel or whatever goes into someone's eye, and there are accidents happening...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Catherine Connolly: Does Deputy Boyd Barrett have a question?

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I want to hear the Minister's response about the charging and the margin.

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I cannot get into ophthalmology in this debate but I am more than happy to speak to Deputy Healy-Rae about it offline. I will respond to his relevant question on the healthcare providers who are required to support patients. With regard to the margin for pharmacists, the current situation is that pharmacists will have two types of patients. These are patients with medical cards and...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: Why does the State not just cover the entire cost?

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: For the reason I gave previously. We had a choice. This comes down to option 1 or option 2. We could have looked to cover GP fees-----

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: I am speaking about the full cost of the medicine.

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I am answering exactly that. Option 1 would be what Deputy Cullinane is suggesting, which is the margin for the pharmacist, the product and the GP consultations, as we have done for free contraception.

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: Leave the GPs out of it; just the pharmacists.

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Just the pharmacists. That option would cost more money. If we had gone further than providing the medicines for free, we would, in the first instance, have had to bring in something like age bands. I do not think that would have been appropriate. I spoke to the National Women's Council about it. The view I got back was that the way we are doing it is the right way to do it, which is to...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: I have a quick further point. Is there any sense as to what that margin might be? That is the obvious question we are going to be asked. I get what the Minister is saying. I am not interested in the GP side of it. When a woman goes to get the product, the State will pay for the cost of the product and then the margin, profit, or whatever we want to call it is paid by the person. What...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank Deputy Cullinane. This will be a matter for various pharmacists, just as it is today. A private patient going to a pharmacist today buying HRT products-----