Results 21-40 of 1,104,599 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Ruairi Ó Murchú OR speaker:Mick Barry OR speaker:Bríd Smith OR speaker:Cormac Devlin OR speaker:Martin Browne OR speaker:James O'Connor OR speaker:Emer Higgins OR speaker:Michael Collins OR speaker:John Lahart OR speaker:Róisín Shortall OR speaker:Bernard Durkan OR speaker:Pat Buckley OR speaker:Aindrias Moynihan OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív OR speaker:Sorca Clarke OR speaker:Eoin Ó Broin OR speaker:Michael McGrath OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív1 OR speaker:Mairead Farrell OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Richard O'Donoghue OR speaker:Neasa Hourigan OR speaker:John Brady OR speaker:Pauline Tully OR speaker:Ivana Bacik OR speaker:Jack Chambers) in 'Committee meetings'

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

Róisín Shortall: There is a great deal of inaccurate information being thrown around on all sides. I am not saying it is inaccurate, but confusing information and claims being made from all sides in respect of this. I would not say for a moment that hospitals should be allowed to recruit as many staff; that would be ridiculous. They were allowed to do that in the past and there were serious problems as a...

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

Róisín Shortall: That is fine and it sounds like a plausible explanation. There are claims that you have not recalibrated the numbers for safe staffing based on a reduced working week. I am not expecting the Minister to have that detail today but I would ask him to provide a note on it, specifically on the recalibration.

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

Róisín Shortall: There is a tendency on the Minister's part to talk about how many additional staff have been provided. That is one way of looking at it, but it is also about what the base rate was like and whether that additional staffing brings the numbers up to an acceptable level.

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

Róisín Shortall: It is getting the full picture through the lens of the safe staffing agreements. That is what I want.

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

Róisín Shortall: I would just like to see the figures.

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

Róisín Shortall: This is heavily disputed. That is why we need to see the facts of the matter. The other point you made on efficiency and so on was to fully utilise the expensive equipment we have. There are many issues around that. I want to raise specifically the issue of radiation therapists. I have raised this umpteen times by way of parliamentary questions. It is claimed by SIPTU in particular that...

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

Róisín Shortall: I am sorry, I did not catch that.

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

Róisín Shortall: When will they be appointed? That is next year.

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

Róisín Shortall: Has that figure been agreed now?

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

Róisín Shortall: I want to go back to the issue of outsourcing. The latter is currently rampant across the health and social care service. I am concerned that we could reach a tipping point with this. So many services, particularly in social care, are outsourced. We have got all of the private nursing homes, something like 80% of home care staff. We are increasingly outsourcing other diagnostics and...

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

Róisín Shortall: That is fine, but the problem is that if we continue in that vein, we create a strong incentive for staff to work in the private sector instead of the public sector. The private sector becomes the place where the jobs are available. Many things need to be looked at with regard to the speed, or lack of speed, in recruitment processes, centralised recruitment in the HSE and all of that kind...

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

Róisín Shortall: I am asking about individual, tailored budgets for the operation of each RHA, which is the eventual aim. When will that begin?

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

Róisín Shortall: So there is discretion.

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)

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)

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...