Results 301-320 of 1,118,107 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív OR speaker:Martin Kenny OR speaker:Michael McNamara OR speaker:Danny Healy-Rae OR speaker:Neale Richmond OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív5 OR speaker:Aodhán Ó Ríordáin OR speaker:Thomas Byrne OR speaker:Paul Murphy OR speaker:Joe McHugh OR speaker:Pippa Hackett OR speaker:Christopher O'Sullivan OR speaker:Sorca Clarke OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Charlie McConalogue OR speaker:Aindrias Moynihan OR speaker:Francis Noel Duffy OR speaker:Martin Browne OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh OR speaker:Noel Grealish OR speaker:Heather Humphreys OR speaker:Simon Harris OR speaker:Seán Crowe OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív15 OR speaker:Pat Buckley OR speaker:John Lahart OR speaker:Jennifer Murnane O'Connor OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh24 OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh18 OR speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh23 OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh29 OR speaker:Dessie Ellis OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh21 OR speaker:Joe O'Brien OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív57) in 'Committee meetings'

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

Róisín Shortall: The profile of the RHAs obviously has to be complete to do that fully.

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

Róisín Shortall: That is happening.

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

Róisín Shortall: The Minister of State indicated that earlier in the year and it is very welcome. I hope other parts of the health service emulate that. Please excuse me as I have to speak in the Chamber. I am sorry.

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)

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)

Róisín Shortall: To pick up where I left off before I had to leave, regarding the handling of the budget going forward, the whole principle of the RHAs is that the area is to be profiled. There would be an allocation of funding based on established need, population size, socioeconomic profile and so on. I know there is a huge amount of work under way in the Department on that. We have not had a briefing...

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

Róisín Shortall: The classic example is when people are ready to be discharged from hospital but they are not discharged because there may not be enough of a home care budget locally. There should be that discretion to spend money where it makes the most sense.

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

Róisín Shortall: We had been getting regular briefings in the Department but we have not had any since before the summer.

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

Róisín Shortall: It would be important to organise that. I will go back to the issue of nursing numbers. I am thinking specifically about community and public health nurses, who are vital, whether it is for older people, infants or others. There are major shortages there in terms of unfilled posts. Is anything being done to address that issue? Is anything being done to take it out of the rest of nursing...

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

Róisín Shortall: It is the ultimate early intervention service. It is madness and very wrong if there are widespread vacancies. The presentation referred to facilitated access to hundreds of thousands of diagnostic scans for GP patients. Will the Minister clarify how that system works at the moment? I am hearing mixed views on it. In some cases, people are saying they can no longer go to a hospital for...

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

Róisín Shortall: Is the Minister saying that anybody who is referred for diagnostic testing by a GP is entitled to that free of charge?

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

Róisín Shortall: The point was made to me by somebody that they were going to a private provider because VHI did not reimburse if it was done in a hospital. What is the situation regarding that?

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

Róisín Shortall: Is that for any diagnostic test?