Results 3,101-3,120 of 35,563 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Bernard Gloster and Robert Watt both told the Joint Committee on Health that 17% was the figure for health inflation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: There is a deficit of €1.5 billion, or maybe it will be €1 billion. We will see when the figures are announced next week because the Department will not tell the committee that oversees it. I understand that the Cabinet may have to agree and all of that. Is the Department expecting that to just disappear? Let us say it is €1 billion; it might be less and it might be a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Non-core means one-off. Does it not? It means it will disappear at some stage.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: The question I put to Mr. Moloney is how much of the overspend this year is recurring or is the view within the Department and the Minister's thought process that none of this is recurring? That is the only logic to what was presented on budget day because not a penny of the deficit has been provided for in the base. Inflation is running at the levels it is, demand is going up and there is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: -----of pay in ELS.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I find this baffling. We are putting one-off expenditure of €432 million in there so that we have a bit of extra time. That does not even come close. By the way, that plus ELS is still half of what the Department and the HSE were looking for to stand still. Let us make that point first. The second argument is that we need this because the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, needs more time...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: It is in the ESRI report.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Road Safety (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: 178. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to clarify that in the event of an accident on a road outside a school (details supplied), who will take responsibility; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49264/23]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: 305. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when a decision will be made for a carer’s benefit review (details supplied); the current processing times for such reviews; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49839/23]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: The full effect of the pay agreement this year will be felt next year. Is that not right? There were two pay agreements and increases, one in the spring and one in the autumn. That will factor into ELS so there is a portion-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I want to briefly raise a couple of issues. Earlier on when I was questioning the level of the shortfall this year, Mr. Moloney said that the HSE or the Department are talking in accrual and cash terms. Let us park the jargon. The numbers are well established in the media, while the Department may not accept them at the minute. The HSE is very clear that the overrun this year is in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Therefore, a Supplementary Estimate for this year would be in the region of €1.1 billion in that case. Is that what we are looking at?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Okay, but it is in that ballpark. Would it be fair to say that it is in that ballpark?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: If, next week, the Department provides a Revised Estimate and a supplementary budget for the Department and the HSE this year of €1.1 billion, and we can accept that it may be a bit less or a bit more than that, then there is a shortfall that the HSE will have of €400 million that it will have to carry into next year. On an accrual basis, it has entered into the contracts and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I am talking about the difference between cash and accrual.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: So, Mr. Moloney acknowledges that there is an overrun - or a deficit, sorry, because the reality of it is that there is an underfunding. Mr. Moloney acknowledges that there is a deficit this year, probably in the region of €1.1 billion.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Okay, but it is in that ballpark. He has acknowledged that it is in that ballpark, on a cash basis. On an accrual basis, that number will be significantly higher. It will be €100 million higher. It will not be provided for in the Supplementary Estimate and therefore it has to be carried forward, and the Department has provided no money for it in next year's budget. Is that not the case?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Hold on a minute. There is €708 million in ELS funding and €100 million for specific new measures. The €708 million is made up of numerous parts. I ask Mr. Moloney, as Secretary General, to provide this oversight committee with great detail on how he and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, arrived at the figure of €708 million. For example, how much of this funding is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: On this €1 billion in non-core expenditure, Mr. Moloney is the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. As an Opposition finance spokesperson, am I supposed to pretend that the €550 million allocated for Covid-related expenditure is not really for that - nod, nod, wink, wink - and that it has actually been...