Local TD Denis Naughten has welcomed confirmation that a 4 acre site has now been secured from the HSE for a new building for St. Teresa’s Special School in Ballinasloe. “This is a very positive development in the ongoing saga of securing a site, but the news will be apprehensively received by the pupils, parents and staff of St. Teresa’s, …
Naughten told site for St. Teresa’s Special School at “very advanced stage”
Local TD Denis Naughten has received confirmation from the Minister for Education that negotiations on the purchase of a site for St. Teresa’s Special School, Ballinasloe, are now at a “very advanced stage”. “This news will be apprehensively received by the pupils, parents and staff of St. Teresa’s, as previous discussions with a landowner on the purchase of a site …
More State focus on courts than addressing needs of victims – Naughten
Denis Naughten has said that the Prime Time exposé has again highlighted an institutional determination to defend court cases rather than address the concerns of victims of a failed policy or misdiagnosis and support vulnerable children who are reliant on State services. “The focus of the State’s approach is to defend the existing Departments’ policy approach at all costs instead …
Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands calls for submissions as part of its pre-budget scrutiny process
As part of its pre-budget scrutiny process, the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community & Rural Development & the Islands, is inviting written submissions from Members of the Public, Stakeholders and interested parties. The Joint Committee has agreed to undertake a detailed examination and review of the 2021 Estimates, once published, for both the Department of Social Protection and the …
Prioritising the vulnerable for vaccination welcome but their carers cannot be ignored – Naughten
Denis Naughten has welcomed plans to prioritise people with serious medical conditions for vaccination but asked that family carers be included in this prioritised category because of the knock on impact on our health service should they get sick. “I believe that it was a mistake not to initially designate full-time family carers in the vulnerable category because if …
Parents should avail of 20 hours home support for special needs students – Naughten
Denis Naughten is encouraging parents of special needs students to submit their application for a 20-hour supplementary education support scheme which will provide in-person tuition or care by teachers and SNAs in the home over a four-week period. The programme was launched earlier this month to support the education and/or care needs of students with complex needs at both primary …
Carers must be included in revised vaccination programme – Naughten
Government needs to outline contingency plan for over 70s vaccination Denis Naughten has called for family carers to now be prioritised as part of the review of the vaccine roll-out following the decision by Government last night to not administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to older people. He has also called on the Government to immediately outline its contingency plan …
Government needs to review vaccination for carers – Naughten
Denis Naughten has called for the lack of priority for family carers to be reviewed with a view to prioritising carers for vaccination due to the impact this could have on the person they are caring for at home. “It was clearly a mistake not to designate full-time family carers in the vulnerable category because if carers get sick then …
Processing of Primary Medical Certs will have to await easing of Covid restrictions
Over the last number of months, I have been pursuing the issue of the suspension of Primary Medical Certificates and I was relieved to be told by the Minister for Finance on 16th November that the HSE had been directed to recommence processing of these applications. See here: See the full discussion here: https://youtu.be/w4hos1FpGjI However, the following day after …
Retired health staff must be recalled for vaccine roll out – Naughten
Denis Naughten is strongly urging Government to utilise as many retired doctors and other health staff as possible during the rollout the Covid 19 vaccine programme rather than pulling existing health staff away from addressing huge backlogs created by the lockdowns. “We are already experiencing record breaking backlogs within our health system and the last thing we now need …