Results 281-300 of 1,121,427 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Eamon Scanlon OR speaker:Joan Burton OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Imelda Munster OR speaker:Joan Burton0 OR speaker:Patrick O'Donovan OR speaker:Cathal Crowe OR speaker:James Browne OR speaker:Pat Buckley OR speaker:Michael McGrath OR speaker:Denis Naughten OR speaker:Gerald Nash OR speaker:Seán Haughey OR speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Charlie McConalogue OR speaker:Paul McAuliffe OR speaker:Michael Lowry OR speaker:Michael Ring OR speaker:Joan Burton1 OR speaker:Heather Humphreys OR speaker:Colm Brophy OR speaker:Emer Higgins OR speaker:Seán Crowe OR speaker:Mark Ward OR speaker:Joe O'Brien OR speaker:Kieran O'Donnell OR speaker:Niall Collins OR speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett OR speaker:Seán Ó Fearghaíl OR speaker:Joan Collins OR speaker:Pippa Hackett OR speaker:Holly Cairns OR speaker:Bernard Durkan OR speaker:David Stanton) in 'Committee meetings'

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Bernard Durkan: As a result of action taken.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Bernard Durkan: In terms of a reduction in the number of incidents, how will be able to monitor the extent to which potential catastrophic incidents can arise? What evidence exists which shows that the prevention of incidents is well in hand, as needs to be the case? The follow-on from that is the financial liability. How quickly will we see the effect of and be able to judge the preventative measures...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Bernard Durkan: All I will say is that this Department specialises in health. Insofar as possible, we need to prevent as many accidents or errors in procedures as possible in every way possible to ensure the money in the health budget is spent on health as opposed to legal fees. I saw something about the OPW. I have had some interaction with the OPW recently. While I cannot find it at the moment, the...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Bernard Durkan: Okay. Is the expenditure normal? Has it been tested? The OPW has had a propensity to slightly exaggerate costs.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I thank the Cathaoirleach.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: I have a couple questions. I will walk through the Minister’s opening statement. He mentioned an additional €5 million for capital expenditure. Can he give us a flavour of what is involved?

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: Yes, he mentioned that later on. He also raised some of the key drivers of the supplementary budget. The Minister said that 60% of the Supplementary Estimate is required for pay costs, excluding pension costs. He mentioned “staffing roles that had previously been provided from temporary Covid funds along with funding for staff hired in excess of funded levels of recruitment”....

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: I am trying to get at the nub of why. The Minister also mentioned “higher agency, overtime and staff allowances due to increased level of demand, especially in acute settings”. He is saying that the people who came in from the Covid funds who were working in the system are needed in the health system.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: The impression at one stage was that people were being hired willy-nilly and there was no real need for those staff. The Minister is saying that the Covid staff are needed. There was a recruitment embargo and we all get that you cannot just hire staff. However, I do not think that anyone is saying that these staff are not needed within the health system. Are there any staff that the...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: We need to be much more focused on who we hire. Is that what the Minister is saying?

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: Again, staff are needed. We had witnesses in the committee. We heard about the radiologists. We have machines sitting there, lying idle, that would be able to be used. That is just one example, but we have been given other examples over the years related to staff. People are waiting on waiting lists. Last night disability was talked about, for instance. Some 4,000 children are waiting...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: Yes.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: Deputy Gino Kenny is looking to come in online.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Bernard Durkan: On this question of a population increase by 2% or 84,000 every year since 2019, this means there has been cumulative population growth of 422,000 between 2019 and 2024. How much of that is indigenous growth and how much of it is due to inward migration?

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Bernard Durkan: We should have them because it gives a slanted impression. For instance, I do not see the number of people over 75 coming into the country as being in any way of the level referred to here but, by comparison, I see a huge number of young people coming in. I would say the ratio is very different from what these figures suggest. As well as that, I heard on a radio programme this morning...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Bernard Durkan: Cloncurry drug treatment centre in Enfield, which is on the border of my constituency, is a case in point. I invite the Minister of State to visit if he gets a chance. It would be important to the assessment of the need and threat.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: We will resume. Deputy Róisín Shortall has indicated she wishes to speak.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: On the same issue, it relates to the supplementary budget but the Minister of State spoke about additional money being put forward. It is a drop in the ocean. My local task force, which I have been a member of practically since it was established, looked for an additional €1 million-plus for the roll-out of services. That was for community engagement with young people who were at...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: There are also concerns around psychosis and everything else. I thank the Minister of State for finishing on that point. I thank the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, and the Ministers of State, Deputies Butler and Burke, for attending the meeting.

Select Committee on Health: Message to Dáil (16 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: In accordance with Standing Order 101, the following message will be sent to the Dáil: The Select Committee on Health has completed its consideration of the following Supplementary Estimate for public services for the year ending 31 December 2024: Vote 38 - Health.