Results 1-20 of 5,933 for speaker:Paul McAuliffe

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: Good morning. I thank the witnesses for being here today and for the work they do. As other speakers have said, the scale of even the issues for which the witnesses are here before us is vast. I acknowledge the scale of the work they do outside of all of that. As the nature of this committee is that we focus on things that go wrong, I just wished to highlight that. It is really...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: Do you know that number?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: Can Ms Nugent give me the number of treatments which were deemed to be inappropriate?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: My question is about those that were non-compliant. I will give Ms Nugent an opportunity to give me that number, please.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: Okay, so it is not yet known.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: Of those treatments which are not yet known to be compliant - this a difficult question to answer - are we examining whether those surgeries were funded by the National Treatment Purchase Fund in any way?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: Okay. Ms Nugent can reassure the committee that there was no perverse financial incentive for these surgeries to be carried out.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: As part of the review, is that being monitored in any way? We want to have a public airing of the assertion Ms Nugent has said here. We want to ensure there was no financial incentive or misuse of the NTPF in order to carry out surgeries which were deemed to be unnecessary. Ms Nugent will understand why I am asking that question.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: Is that financial element the subject of the review, or is the review purely clinical?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: Okay. I will turn to Ms Brady then. It is concerning, given the breaches that have happened in the MOU, that this concern arises. Is there a way the NTPF can establish that there was no perverse financial incentive for operations which were carried out and not needed?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: I do not take away from the fact that at the centre of many of these allegations are individuals who made decisions that are indefensible in many cases. We are not asking Ms Brady to respond on behalf of the individuals who did those wrong things. Rather, we are asking her to respond on the system that can ensure this will not happen again and that checks are in place. She is saying there...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: What the NTPF might be responsible for though is any potential conflict of interest. Obviously, Mr. Gloster raised that in his report. What measures has it put in place to prevent conflicts of interest?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: If someone is managing the flow of work through a public list and there is also a NTPF process where they receive additional payments for work carried out through the NTPF, that is a conflict of interest.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: If a clinician is managing the flow of treatment in a public list but has an ability to benefit financially by treating that person through an NTPF initiative, I regard that as a conflict of interest. While it may be difficult to avoid that conflict of interest, what steps has the NTPF taken to ensure that management, if you want to use that word, or mismanagement, of the public lists does...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: The concern lingers in the public, given all of the discussion, that in some way those people who are responsible for managing the flow of work through public clinics are organising that work in a way that other colleagues or they might benefit financially from it. What steps is the NTPF putting in place to make sure that does not happen? While I appreciate that Ms Brady has given me a...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: In some ways, we have discussed a lot of stuff. However, I appreciate the response. I return to Ms Hardiman's employment contract. It is unfortunate she is here as an individual and is also responding to what I think is a system-wide issue. If someone can accrue a contract of indefinite duration, which they have an employment right to do over two terms, it calls into question the sense...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: Of course.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: Does Ms Nugent have the same type of contract? Will we be facing the same scenario at the end of her ten-year period, should she last or - I apologise - should she serve that term? I apologise for misusing that word. I meant serve that term. I apologise to Ms Nugent.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: The question was whether she has the same contract.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Children's Health Ireland
Financial Statements - National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: There is a system-wide issue for the Department with other public bodies. We are essentially having to resolve what should be a specific purpose contract, because a contract of indefinite duration, CID, is in place.