Results 1-20 of 1,151,714 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:John Carty OR speaker:Roderic O'Gorman OR speaker:Kieran O'Donnell OR speaker:Seán Fleming OR speaker:Mary Lou McDonald OR speaker:Darren O'Rourke OR speaker:Martin Heydon OR speaker:Francis Noel Duffy OR speaker:Imelda Munster OR speaker:Matt Shanahan OR speaker:Cian O'Callaghan OR speaker:James Lawless OR speaker:Niall Collins OR speaker:John Brady OR speaker:Maurice Quinlivan OR speaker:Gary Gannon OR speaker:Seán Crowe OR speaker:Aindrias Moynihan OR speaker:Ruairi Ó Murchú OR speaker:James O'Connor OR speaker:Denis Naughten OR speaker:Pádraig Mac Lochlainn OR speaker:Seán Canney OR speaker:Ciarán Cannon OR speaker:Matt Carthy OR speaker:Simon Harris OR speaker:Colm Burke OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív OR speaker:Marc MacSharry)

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

Seán Crowe: The meeting has been convened to consider the 2024 Supplementary Estimate for Vote 38 for the Department of Health, amounting to €1.749 billion for current expenditure and €5 million for capital expenditure. I welcome the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Colm Burke, who is a former member of the...

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

Seán Crowe: Okay.

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

Seán Crowe: The Minister spoke of subhead J1. Maybe it is the language he is using but it is not very clear. I am conscious people are probably listening at home as well. Maybe other members understand it. The Minister stated: While there are deficits across a range of core services, most of the supplementary ask, €1.544 billion, relates to acute hospitals. These deficits in core services...

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

Seán Crowe: It is a bit unclear but I will the discussion open up to members. I think Deputy Durkan is leading us off.

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

Seán Crowe: I have a couple questions. I will walk through the Minister’s opening statement. He mentioned an additional €5 million for capital expenditure. Can he give us a flavour of what is involved?

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

Seán Crowe: Yes, he mentioned that later on. He also raised some of the key drivers of the supplementary budget. The Minister said that 60% of the Supplementary Estimate is required for pay costs, excluding pension costs. He mentioned “staffing roles that had previously been provided from temporary Covid funds along with funding for staff hired in excess of funded levels of recruitment”....

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

Seán Crowe: I am trying to get at the nub of why. The Minister also mentioned “higher agency, overtime and staff allowances due to increased level of demand, especially in acute settings”. He is saying that the people who came in from the Covid funds who were working in the system are needed in the health system.

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

Seán Crowe: The impression at one stage was that people were being hired willy-nilly and there was no real need for those staff. The Minister is saying that the Covid staff are needed. There was a recruitment embargo and we all get that you cannot just hire staff. However, I do not think that anyone is saying that these staff are not needed within the health system. Are there any staff that the...

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

Seán Crowe: We need to be much more focused on who we hire. Is that what the Minister is saying?

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

Seán Crowe: Again, staff are needed. We had witnesses in the committee. We heard about the radiologists. We have machines sitting there, lying idle, that would be able to be used. That is just one example, but we have been given other examples over the years related to staff. People are waiting on waiting lists. Last night disability was talked about, for instance. Some 4,000 children are waiting...

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

Seán Crowe: Yes.

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

Seán Crowe: Deputy Gino Kenny is looking to come in online.

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

Colm Burke: The additional funding in budget 2025 is €4.2 million. An additional 34 whole-time-equivalents will be employed. Some €2 million will be allocated to expand community-based drug services. Some €1 million will be allocated for the national roll-out of the community alcohol service, and that includes the employment of 24 whole-time equivalents. There is €500,000...

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

Colm Burke: There is a substantial increase in the overall budget for 2025. It is going to be the biggest budget ever in real terms. I will get the correct figure for the Deputy but the increase in total is the biggest figure. For instance, the total increase in funding is €40.5 million for the coming year. There is a €10.1 million increase for pay awards agreements. Some €5...

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

Colm Burke: As the Deputy knows, we hope to have the supervised injection facility in Merchants Quay opened by the end of the year. I have been there and I have seen the progress being made in the building work. The target is to have it opened by early to mid-December. That is a really important facility that needs to be open. As the Deputy knows, the initial proposal on that was going back to 2019....

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

Colm Burke: The Deputy should remember that 422 different centres around the country provide support for people with alcohol or drug addiction. Last year, 13,000 people received treatment for drug addiction and 8,000 people received treatment for alcohol addiction. Those figures are likely to go up. I have visited many of those centres over the last three to four months and each one of them is doing a...

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

Colm Burke: The target date is for early to mid-December and the construction work has really progressed. I was down there recently - in the last three weeks - and I have seen the work that has been done. The people involved in it are doing everything possible to make sure we can reach that target date of somewhere in the first two weeks of December.

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

Colm Burke: My understanding is that wastewater can be analysed to see the issue regarding the use of drugs. I am not into the detail of it but it is a mechanism that can be used to identify and to evaluate. Regarding the figures we have, we rely on centres such as all the HSE treatment centres around the country but we do not have a full picture in real terms of the people who are using substances. It...

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

Colm Burke: On that point, many of the drug treatment centres are helping people to get access to medical services. I visited a number of centres. In one centre, for instance, a GP and nurses are going into the street and getting people into the centre for medical treatment. Many people who have had an adverse event in an accident and emergency department are now afraid of going to an accident and...

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

Seán Crowe: We will resume. Deputy Róisín Shortall has indicated she wishes to speak.