Results 341-360 of 1,043,559 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Carol Nolan OR speaker:Niall Collins OR speaker:Patricia Ryan OR speaker:James O'Connor OR speaker:Cathal Crowe OR speaker:Róisín Shortall OR speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice) in 'Committee meetings'
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: It was not that clear. I have a couple of questions on the action plan from March. It was stated that the task force would be fully staffed from May. Is it the case now that the task force is fully staffed?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: And in the Department?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: How many people from the Department are on the task force?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: How often does it meet?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: There was a report out in June, I think.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: As a matter of interest, a small section of the action plan has been redacted regarding targeted savings. Why has that been redacted?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: Why did the HSE not include that as a heading? We were not looking for the detail. It seems strange that the Department redacted that. I am particularly interested in knowing the total savings. That figure has been redacted. I am interested in knowing the total savings over pay, medicines and non-paid procurement. What is the target savings figure?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: What is that figure?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: Why has that been redacted?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: Does the Department now have a total target figure for savings?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: It is expected that other organisations set targets, and targets are a good thing generally. How do we know about the HSE's performance if it has not set a target that is publicly available?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: That is one element. There are a whole lot of elements in this. I am asking-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: The Department has all of the target savings across the other headings.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: I look forward to getting that information from the Department as soon as possible. The opening statements were interesting in terms of activity. I did not get a sense of where the HSE had identified areas for productivity improvements and what it was doing about those. Ms McGirr told us about activity but not productivity. Maybe there is a report somewhere which gives us that...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: That is fine. I do not get a sense that the HSE had identified areas where productivity needed to be improved. What sectors or staff categories need to be addressed? How did the HSE tackle that issue? I have a sense that it is a bit of a blur. This brings us back to the fact that it has never been possible to get a clear line of sight of health funding because the data systems were, and...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: It was a political decision that was made?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: But that was not adequate.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: It was not adequate to cover the demographic costs. Would Mr. Watt accept that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: Yet IFAC, which criticises the Government all the time for spending too much, said "the health allocation for 2024 [in the budget] is ... [not even] enough to cover [these] demographic and price pressures". Where was the lack of response coming from in terms of ensuring those elements were included in the budget allocation? Was the case not made strongly enough by the Department of Health...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: My final question relates to a particular area that stands out, and the witnesses have identified it themselves, where additional money going is into the hospital sector but the results are not being achieved at the other end. What specifically is the Department doing about that? There is huge money going into the hospital sector. I have put it to Mr. Watt before as to whether a "money...