Results 1-20 of 1,232,049 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Paul Gavan OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Kieran O'Donnell OR speaker:Seán Canney OR speaker:Seán Fleming OR speaker:Seán Sherlock OR speaker:Francis Noel Duffy OR speaker:Richard Bruton OR speaker:Richard Bruton6 OR speaker:Leo Varadkar OR speaker:Brendan Griffin OR speaker:Marian Harkin OR speaker:Stephen Donnelly OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív OR speaker:Paul Donnelly OR speaker:Matt Shanahan OR speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett OR speaker:Michael Creed OR speaker:Jack Chambers OR speaker:Thomas Byrne OR speaker:Cathal Berry OR speaker:Pauline Tully OR speaker:Anne Rabbitte OR speaker:Thomas Byrne1 OR speaker:Jim O'Callaghan OR speaker:Brian Stanley OR speaker:Cathal Crowe OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív06 OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív42 OR speaker:Gerald Nash OR speaker:Niall Collins OR speaker:Carol Nolan OR speaker:Helen McEntee OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív57 OR speaker:Pa Daly OR speaker:Matt Carthy OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív61 OR speaker:Seán Crowe OR speaker:Catherine Connolly OR speaker:Alan Dillon OR speaker:Joe Flaherty OR speaker:John McGuinness OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív04 OR speaker:Pat Buckley OR speaker:Michael Healy-Rae)

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (24 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: Apologies have been received from the Cathaoirleach, Deputy Paul Kehoe, and from Deputies Mairéad Farrell and Sorca Clarke. I ask members to turn off their mobile phones. This meeting has been convened to consider the Supplementary Estimate - Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, which was referred to this committee by the Dáil. I welcome the...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (24 Oct 2024)

Niall Collins: I thank the committee members for the opportunity to speak to them this afternoon to present the 2024 Supplementary Estimates for the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. My officials have provided briefing material to the secretariat of the committee, which hopefully will be of assistance to members. This Estimate provides for a net increase of...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (24 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: I thank the Minister of State. I do not think there will be too many questions. One thing that Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan and I were pleased to see was that €116 million was going to be set for once-off cost-of-living measures for students. We had the Union of Students in Ireland before the committee earlier in the week. Cost-of-living challenges are a big issue for third level...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (24 Oct 2024)

Niall Collins: Yes, absolutely. The €116 million in the main goes towards the €1,000 reduction in the student registration charge. I think it is fair to say we have to keep in context the fact that over the lifetime of this Government, we have done a lot of work to reform the SUSI grant system. We have increased thresholds and grant amounts. We also made technical adjustments to the scheme...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (24 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: The increased stipend for PhD students that was announced in the budget is not covered in the Supplementary Estimate; it does not need to be. Does the Minister of State think it will facilitate postgraduate students in terms of their further studies?

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (24 Oct 2024)

Niall Collins: A long campaign has been waged by various stakeholders in that cohort of students. We have done a lot of work. We spend a lot of our time speaking about apprenticeships and higher education but part of our remit is research. We have reformed significantly the legislation and organisations that oversee and are charged with managing our research as well as with supporting people through...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (24 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: I thank the Minister of State and his officials for their engagement at this meeting and at all previous meetings of this Dáil, which is coming near an end. That concludes our consideration of the Supplementary Estimate for Vote 45.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Message to Dáil (24 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: In accordance with Standing Order 101, the following message will be sent to the Clerk of the Dáil: The Select Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has completed its consideration of the following Supplementary Estimates for public services for the year ending 31 December 2024: Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research,...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Service Executive (24 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I welcome all the witnesses. Mr. Gloster, in his opening statement, mentioned the number of staff in August 2024 and said that the "growth is 23.3% since December 2019". Has the WRC change from a 39-hour week to a 37.5-hour week been part of the calibration?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Service Executive (24 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Has Mr. Gloster responded to the INMO with that information?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Service Executive (24 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: On the 2,000 posts that were suppressed in advance of the embargo being lifted, Mr. Gloster gave us the figure for August 2024. Will he please give us the figure for December 2023?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Service Executive (24 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Yes

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Service Executive (24 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I, too, picked up on the overtime payment and wonder how it happened. During a weekend night call-out in 2023, the employee was paid a rate of six hours' pay per patient for each of the four patients treated in a single period of 60 minutes. That same point was made by Deputy Kelly. It cost in excess of €2,800 for the call, which is an extraordinary amount. I can see the HSE's...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Service Executive (24 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: This situation happens when the consultant is called in to a hospital, I presume, to see patients and there is nobody else to cover that. This person would have come in and seen four patients, and that is essentially how it happened.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Service Executive (24 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: The second item I want to deal with - I hope I will be able to come back in on a few other matters later - relates to the settlement of the employment case. This cropped up in the C and AG's report. It jumped out to us. I understand that there is a mediated situation and that this constrains what can be said. The settlement comprised €1.37 million for a loss of potential private...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Service Executive (24 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: It is astronomical. It really is-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Service Executive (24 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: -----and it indicates that the power was all on one side here. I asked a question some time ago about the contractor that is building the national children's hospital and contracts over the past ten years for the same entity. There were seven of them, totalling €93 million, in different locations. What was the profile for looking at how they had worked out and whether they were on...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Service Executive (24 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: That is general, however.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Service Executive (24 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Will Mr. Gloster please do that and revert to us?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Service Executive (24 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I will probably not be here for the response but the committee will receive it.