Results 161-180 of 23,892 for speaker:Róisín Shortall
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: Good morning. Mr. Devane is very welcome. I will start with questions about his term of office. How long is it?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: Is this Mr. Devane's third term?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: Okay. It is five years and then three years. Is that the limit then?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: I thank Mr. Devane. I was just curious about the number of years. I turn now to the important issue of budgeting in the HSE and the experience last year when the organisation seemed to have been engaged in deficit budgeting. This issue was highlighted by the chair of the audit and risk committee, who subsequently resigned over the fact that some €2 billion of proposed services...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: I would not necessarily be in the camp of people who say the HSE is overspending. I would be more of the view that the organisation is underfunded. Indeed, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council also drew attention to the fact that the funding allocated by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform was not sufficient to take account of the significant...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: I put it to Mr. Devane, though, that there is no problem with scrutiny. The issue is if costs related to demographic pressures were not funded. How was it that neither the HSE nor the Department of Health could make this case clearly to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: No, but over recent years the HSE and the Department of Health have not been successful in making the case to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform for an adequate budget allocation. I would take this as the primary role of the Secretary General in the Department, Mr. Devane, as the HSE chair, and the chief executive of the HSE.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: Okay. The figures involved here are enormous.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: We could expect that these campaigns would be properly run and they have-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: -----obviously fallen short in recent years. This needs attention. The Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform was critical of the HSE recently in relation to the growth in the numbers of management and administration staff. It was said there was growth of 8.8% in this category of staff last year. The understanding with the changeover to...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: Why has there been such growth in the numbers? I know that administration staff are needed. I am not saying there should not be any, but why was there such a growth in the numbers?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: There would appear to be a disproportionate growth in numbers. I do not expect Mr. Devane to have the figures now, but could he provide a note-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: -----showing the split between administration and management grades in relation to this level of growth? He also spoke about shifting the dial and investing to save in the future, to make the organisation more efficient and so on. One of these areas is technology and transformation, as it is called. It was disappointing to hear that the main emphasis of the digitalisation process in the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: When will the patient identifier be in place?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: That is the point I am making. Why is the allocated funding being used for an app rather than EHR?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: It is all part of digitalisation, which is a 2015 programme.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: So the HSE does not have funding for EHR this year.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: Why is that not being prioritised for funding? The children's hospital will not be opened this year. We have been talking about having a patient identifier since 2015.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Chairperson Designate (29 May 2024)
Róisín Shortall: The Department, or at least the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, does not agree with Mr. Devane.