Results 1-20 of 1,053,707 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Ciarán Cuffe OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Neale Richmond OR speaker:Brendan Smith OR speaker:David Cullinane OR speaker:Gerald Nash OR speaker:Bernard Durkan)

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I welcome our guests and congratulate them on the indicative progress at all levels, which is very welcome. Like the Chairman, I have had personal experience of our hospital services in recent times. I was really impressed with the manner in which everybody, from orderlies to consultants to everybody else involved, fulfilled their duties. We should mention also the number of foreign-born...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

Bernard Durkan: They are gone. I could go for another ten minutes if the Chair wants me to.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I know the Chair is anxious that I would-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I am finished.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

David Cullinane: Can I ask Mr. Gloster about the publication of the review of Mr. Justice Frank Clarke into the death of Aoife Johnston? The witnesses might have seen reports in the media today that the report might be published next month and that the family has asked for the report to be published by this Friday. It is obviously a really important issue. As well as waiting for the publication of that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

David Cullinane: I will move on to performance and outputs. When we are talking about productivity what people will measure is, obviously, what we get at the other end of the investments we make. Since 2019, there has been a 50% increase in health spending, which we all welcome. Of course, additional funding will be needed over the next number of years in areas as well. One of the measurements is waiting...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

David Cullinane: Can I hold Mr. Gloster on that point?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

David Cullinane: It does strike people as a bit bizarre that a country with a population of 5.2 million has 840,000 people on active waiting lists. That is acute waiting lists. We also have 240,000 people on community waiting lists, which do not get published. Members must submit parliamentary questions to get those responses. That is across a whole range of community services. That is a lot of people...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

David Cullinane: If can come back in-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

David Cullinane: -----I have given Mr. Gloster a lot of time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

David Cullinane: I accept that, and I have given Mr. Gloster a good deal of time to respond. I accept that long waiting times have come down; I acknowledged that twice. I make the point again, however, that there are still many people who are either coming onto waiting lists or who are still on them. I spoke to the head of the Department of Health about this matter a number of times. I want to see more...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

David Cullinane: -----integrated waiting list management systems and getting a better bang for buck. Those are the outputs we are talking about. When we look at the big numbers of people waiting, they just do not make sense in the context of the size of our population. One of the issues that has come up in respect of expenditure is that of aids and appliances. Spending in this regard has, again, gone up...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

David Cullinane: Say that again.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

Bernard Durkan: The questions I asked in the first round were seen as comments. I would like to go back to the scoliosis issue, however. We need to deal with that firmly and quickly. We also need a response from this meeting and any other meetings to indicate precisely what it is intended to do. We can come to all the meetings we want and raise the issues again and again. The people expect to see...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

Bernard Durkan: It must have been a secret meeting.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I am not in favour of secret meetings.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I do not want to interrupt, and I know Mr. Gloster is trying to be helpful, but the site was already available. Somebody decided, "No, we will have a consultation with builders", and so on. There is only so much of that kind of nonsense that can be tolerated.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

Bernard Durkan: And Naas General Hospital in that context.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

Bernard Durkan: Yes, there has to be.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)

David Cullinane: I will start; we will not waste any time. As regards the productivity and savings task force action plan that was published, one of the areas that was key to identifying savings was agency spend - overtime, obviously. As part of the pay and numbers strategy that was published, there were a number of pillars to it setting a ceiling for staff recruitment. The ceiling is too low. We have had...