Results 1-20 of 1,117,942 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:Cormac Devlin OR speaker:Pádraig O'Sullivan OR speaker:Denise Mitchell OR speaker:Joe McHugh OR speaker:Ivana Bacik OR speaker:Frank Feighan OR speaker:Gary Gannon OR speaker:Peadar Tóibín)

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

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Chair and the members of the select committee for the opportunity to bring the Supplementary Estimate for Vote 38 before them. I am seeking an additional total for 2024 of €1.754 billion. It comprises €1.749 billion for the HSE's current expenditure and €5 million for capital expenditure. For clarity, while I am seeking the committee's approval for this...

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

Stephen Donnelly: Subhead 1 relates to net pensions costs of €83 million. Pensions is an area that is difficult to predict with accuracy as it is demand-led and once people retire they are entitled to claim superannuation benefits. As well as the demand element, the additional €83 million is driven by the public sector pay deal and a reduction in retained superannuation contributions because of...

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

Stephen Donnelly: I referenced two funds in the speech, the chief clinical officer's area and the services area. Essentially, the money goes into central departments in the HSE and, as new developments are rolled out, it gets transferred. For example, regarding the national cancer strategy, the money is allocated from the Department to the HSE, sits with the chief clinical officer and his unit and, as the...

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

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. The two big areas of underspend which we have shown in the document circulated to the committee are those the Chair and I have just discussed. They relate to the chief clinical officer and national support services. They are not really underspends. That is to the Chair's point. We call them underspends but, in fact, they are lump sums that are transferred across and,...

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

Stephen Donnelly: They probably are.

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

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. The core part of this is patient safety. There is a financial cost involved for the State as well, but, first and foremost, this is about reducing and, where possible, eliminating harm to patients. A few different things have happened. In terms of catastrophic birth injuries, there is now a review group. It was set up, I believe, two years ago by an eminent...

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

Stephen Donnelly: I am sure we can get that information for the Deputy. What we are seeing in the profile is that there was a significant escalation, as we see from the figures provided to the committee, from €205 million in 2015 up to €465 million in 2021. It more than doubled. In 2022, it went up €530 million. It has stabilised over the past four years.

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

Stephen Donnelly: There would be various reasons. The payments being made this year will, for example, relate to cases from quite some time ago. We will get the Deputy a more detailed note in terms of legal fees versus payments. We want to achieve a few things. First and foremost, we want to maximise patient safety. Second, where there is a mistake or where there is a catastrophic birth injury or...

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

Stephen Donnelly: They are measured each year. There is an accurate understanding of the number of catastrophic birth injuries and, indeed, other patient safety issues. It is taken very seriously. The patient safety office in my Department is very involved in this. The HSE is also very involved. We can certainly provide some detail in terms of the numbers. For example, the legal fees relating to the...

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

Stephen Donnelly: The OPW was mentioned in the context of the Brexit infrastructure in Dublin Airport and the two ports.

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

Stephen Donnelly: I will ask Ms Louise McGirr to provide the details.

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

Stephen Donnelly: I thank Deputy Cullinane for that. I will answer his second question first. Ms McGirr is on the task force and is well placed to give the Deputy an update on his first question. On the changes to work practices, what we are doing is pursuing what was called for in Sláintecare. For me, there are three pieces to this, namely, structural changes to get better productivity, operational...

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

Stephen Donnelly: The figure of 2,000 is contested. My Department has written to the INMO seeking the figures. It has not provided those to us. We wrote again to the INMO this week seeking those figures. Nobody has cited these 2,000 roles. If and when we get the list of those posts, we will of course take that very seriously.

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

Stephen Donnelly: I am saying that we keep hearing this figure that there are-----

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

Stephen Donnelly: It is. Something that is very clear - let us just stick with nursing and midwifery for now but it applies across the board - is that the total funded positions in nursing and midwifery today are well higher than they were this day-----

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

Stephen Donnelly: I will answer the Deputy's question. We need to see the INMO or Fórsa figure of 2,000. We will verify it. It is the case that there are teams, be they in the community or in hospitals, which are under a lot of pressure. There are teams that might have had one or two vacant posts in January, where they do not currently have agreement to hire into those posts so I-----

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

Stephen Donnelly: -----absolutely accept that.

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

Stephen Donnelly: The point is there are thousands more posts now than there were. What can be done? Hospital managers and regional executive officers can redeploy. Ultimately, there are thousands more posts today than there were this time last year. We are talking about an overrun of €1.7 billion. We have to get away from a world where individual hospitals, and it is mainly the hospitals rather...

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

Stephen Donnelly: To be clear, for funded vacant posts, the budget has funded an extra 3,500 posts for next year. This year, there are approximately 3,000 funded vacant posts. Between now and the end of next year, there will be approximately 6,500 fully funded vacant posts.

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

Stephen Donnelly: It is very disappointing. I absolutely acknowledge that there are teams. There are community-based teams in primary care, for example, and teams in our hospitals, where they really are under pressure. There were vacancies in their teams through the embargo and they no longer have sanction to immediately hire into those. However, as envisaged under Sláintecare, we are pushing...