Results 281-300 of 1,118,922 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:Gino Kenny OR speaker:Michael Collins) 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)

Gino Kenny: I thank everybody for their statements thus far. I have a question for the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, regarding the additional funding this year. Will he give a breakdown on this? I am reading a breakdown of the additional funding in the press release and it gives a breakdown but the drugs task forces in the country will say that funding has been reduced, particularly in the last ten...

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

Gino Kenny: Does the Minister of State accept that in terms of the overall harm reduction budget and the money that is given towards task forces across the country, there has been a reduction, particularly in the last 12 years? Obviously, he is only in the position a number of months but does he accept that in 2012 more money was being allocated towards task forces than there is now?

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

Gino Kenny: Yes, I accept that but many people on the ground who are at the coalface will say there needs to be much more funding in terms of the evolution of drug dependency and drug use in communities. That has to be acknowledged.

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

Gino Kenny: Thanks a lot.

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

Gino Kenny: I thank the Minister of State for that. Just to confirm, he referred to the safe injection facility. I would probably term it slightly differently. The "safe consumption room" is probably a better term. Is he saying this facility will be open in December?

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

Gino Kenny: That is good news. I have a final question. Regarding harm reduction activities, wastewater drug surveillance is referred to in the press release. What exactly is that?

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

Gino Kenny: Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit.