Results 1,321-1,340 of 1,217,574 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Réada Cronin OR speaker:Simon Coveney OR speaker:Seán Sherlock OR speaker:Denise Mitchell OR speaker:Duncan Smith OR speaker:Fergus O'Dowd OR speaker:Michael Healy-Rae OR speaker:Jackie Cahill OR speaker:Niall Collins OR speaker:Mattie McGrath OR speaker:Michael Creed OR speaker:Pádraig O'Sullivan OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív OR speaker:Mick Barry OR speaker:David Cullinane OR speaker:Dessie Ellis OR speaker:Pauline Tully OR speaker:Paul Donnelly OR speaker:Joe Flaherty OR speaker:Neasa Hourigan OR speaker:Stephen Donnelly OR speaker:Mark Ward OR speaker:Neale Richmond OR speaker:Pat Buckley OR speaker:Norma Foley OR speaker:Bernard Durkan OR speaker:Ruairi Ó Murchú OR speaker:Johnny Mythen OR speaker:Catherine Connolly OR speaker:Aindrias Moynihan OR speaker:Niamh Smyth OR speaker:Claire Kerrane OR speaker:Pearse Doherty OR speaker:Anne Rabbitte OR speaker:Mary Lou McDonald OR speaker:John Lahart OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív15 OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív58 OR speaker:Paul McAuliffe OR speaker:Jim O'Callaghan OR speaker:Simon Harris OR speaker:Helen McEntee OR speaker:Pádraig Mac Lochlainn OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív88 OR speaker:Patrick Costello OR speaker:Peadar Tóibín OR speaker:Danny Healy-Rae OR speaker:Peter Burke OR speaker:Maurice Quinlivan OR speaker:Marc MacSharry) in 'Committee meetings'

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: The witnesses are very welcome and I thank them for their opening statement. I ask them to clear up some confusion in this area. Anyone listening to this discussion in recent months will have seen a lot of smoke and mirrors. On the one hand, the Minister for Health has been telling us we have never had it so good with all of this recruitment that we have seen over the last number of years,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: When the Minister for Health was before the committee last week I put it to him that if he disputed the figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, SIPTU, Fórsa or any other organisation on suppressed, lost or decommissioned posts, he should provide the real number and I did not get an answer. Is the lack of an answer because the data is not being captured or does the HSE...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: I accept that. Ms Connolly spoke about a lack of transparency about the data underpinning the pay and numbers strategy and the other healthcare trade unions have made a similar point. She made another important point, which should be noted, that HSE HR was directed to essentially switch off the vacancies on the SAP payroll system. If vacant posts are switched off and gone, is the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: Are these posts that were marked as vacant on the HSE's SAP payroll system?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: They have just vanished.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: Yes. I wish to come back to the concluding remarks in Fórsa's opening statement. Before I do that, another important point was made when it was said that we should not conflate new development posts with core service delivery, the replacement of staff, staff turnover, etc. From what was said, I am assuming that the Minister quite rightly is saying there is recruitment and that the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: Fórsa is asking that the Minister and the Government, or at least the HSE anyway, would negotiate with Fórsa and other healthcare trade unions on the pay and numbers strategy, which makes sense, have a workforce plan, which makes sense as well, and deal with safe staffing levels. Another observation I will make is that it is very odd and bizarre that we train so many healthcare...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: It has more than doubled.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

John Lahart: I thank the members of Fórsa for coming in and for the presentation. I have broad sympathy for many of the points made. I just wish to clarify a few things. Robert Watt was quoted. I was here the day he made that presentation. I can understand why the witnesses would select that quote, but he made many other substantial contributions in terms of trying to not curtail costs, and I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

John Lahart: I am glad the Cathaoirleach said it. One of the things I would have said, having been a member of this committee for five years, is that while I am not here as an apologist for Bernard Gloster, I found him to be a breath of fresh air to deal with as CEO of the HSE.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

John Lahart: That is a question. Fórsa was extremely concerned by reports last week that HSE HR has directed all vacant posts to be switched off on the SAP payroll system. That would alarm me if it is true. Do the witnesses have evidence they can give us?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

John Lahart: We are on the record here. That is what I am concerned about. I would like clarification of exactly what that means. How does the SAP payroll system work? Are vacancies visible? Is that what Ms Connolly is saying?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

John Lahart: To drill down more into that, to whom is that data available?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

John Lahart: If we tabled a parliamentary question about vacancies in the HSE, would that be a place the HSE would go to and where it should be able to see vacancies? Ms Connolly is saying now that that data has been removed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

John Lahart: I am not arguing with Ms Connolly on this. That is alarming if that is the case because if vacancies existed, they are now not visible as existing, so the system is suggesting there are no vacancies.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

John Lahart: As a member of the committee, though I am not speaking for the committee, I am sure the HSE is watching and if that is true, I am sure the committee wants to hear an account of what that is about. Either the vacancies are visible or they are not. If they are not, why has that happened? The other side of this relates to private contractors. I will let the witnesses come back because I am...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

John Lahart: The policy choice is to say to the HSE that it can employ 6,000 additional people this year, and the HSE employed 8,500, or that it did not have the budget to employ 2,000 additional staff during Covid, but it employed them, so the Government is going to cover that cost. The Department and Government are saying the HSE cannot continue to employ thousands of people over the budgets it has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: I had intended to ask about what kind of engagement Fórsa has had with the productivity and savings group. For clarity, has Fórsa never been invited to make a submission to it? I know the group has had ten meetings, or at least it has issued the minutes of ten meetings. Has the union never been asked for data on the people it represents?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: That is a missed opportunity.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa (23 Oct 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: Continuing on the issue of agency staff, I have put a question about this at a number of recent sessions. It is not so much the agency staff who might cover for maternity or sick leave but agency staff who are in effectively full-time, long-term roles. A significant proportion of an outpatient team, for example, might be agency staff. The answers I got indicated the HSE is now undertaking...