Results 4,061-4,080 of 11,255 for speaker:Colm Burke

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: I am not blaming the witnesses' Department at all. The failure is on the other side. Turning to the level of support available in Ireland in respect of social welfare across the board, a recent study shows Ireland is 60% ahead of the UK in the level of support for people on social welfare schemes. Do we have a comparable with other countries, outside of the UK, on that issue?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: I am raising this because, while I know Mr. McKeon said a person on social welfare here is 60% better than off than a person in the UK, there are glitches in the system too. Do we look at other systems to see where we can introduce improvements to provide support?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Does Mr. McKeon think we could make further improvements in the area of disabilities? Many people who have a disability are restricted in what they can work at. At the same time, many want to make a contribution and they find that, in certain cases, they are quite restricted in trying to make that contribution. Do we have an ongoing review of that in order that we can allow people to work...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: I will move on to rent supplement. The figure for 2021 is €122 million. The estimated figure for this year seems to be reduced. Is there a particular reason for that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: There is a substantial drop from €122 million to the estimated outturn for this year of €74 million.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Finally, I raise the issue of pensions. Mr. McKeon referred to over €450 million extra being paid out on pensions. I know the number of people aged over 66 is about 760,000. That will increase to over 1 million by 2030. For the next five years, even if the level of payment stayed static, what increase in expenditure do we expect per annum?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: There is a proposal about people delaying taking up their pension. Will that come in?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: People can opt not to draw their pension until they are 70.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Accommodation (1 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: 151. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide an update on the proposal for the inclusion of a provision under the rent-a-room scheme to allow pensioners who are medical card holders to avail of the scheme without the possibility of losing their medical card; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59857/22]

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2022)

Colm Burke: My understanding, from the State Claims Agency, is that if it settled every claim in the morning, it would mean that from all Departments it would be between €4.2 billion and €4.3 billion, of which €3.8 billion concerns the healthcare sector. In view of the increase of €95 billion for this year, can we get an estimate of a breakdown over the next five years on the...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2022)

Colm Burke: We have reviewed the whole issue in terms of industrial accidents, and claims for industrial accidents and car accidents over the past ten years. The one area that we have parked and did nothing about, in fact, is medical negligence and we have let that roll on the way it is going. The biggest problem for the State is in fighting any of these claims, or trying to minimise the claims, there...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2022)

Colm Burke: Perhaps we could get a detailed memo from the Department on the current number of claims and the timeframes involved. Such a detailed note might be interesting because a very large amount of money is pending. I will move onto a totally different issue. In the report the Minister gave us, he spoke about additional beds and so on. However, I notice that €1.46 billion was set aside...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2022)

Colm Burke: Is there not a problem in that there are people in hospital beds who could be discharged but who are not being discharged in a timely manner? I will give an example. The Taoiseach officially opened Heather House in Cork three or four months ago but it is not now being fully utilised.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2022)

Colm Burke: No. To deal with that specific issue, I know of people in Cork University Hospital, CUH, who are looking for a bed. This is not a private nursing home but a HSE facility. Beds in public nursing homes are costing €1,600 per week on average whereas the real cost in a hospital is approximately €8,000. Heather House has empty beds and does not have full staffing in place while...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2022)

Colm Burke: In fairness, they are. What I am saying is that there is still a problem in that, when some hospitals right around the country try to find a bed to accommodate a person who needs more than normal nursing home care and a small bit of additional support, the nursing homes are not able to provide that because they do not feel they are getting sufficient funding.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2022)

Colm Burke: They are costing us quite a lot of money, however. There is now an underspend of €44 million, which is great from the Department's point of view, but, in real terms, an additional cost is being incurred because people are in hospitals for longer. There needs to be a review of how to get people out of hospital beds and into a step-down facility that can provide the level of care they...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2022)

Colm Burke: Would the Minister accept that-----

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2022)

Colm Burke: As we sit here, a large number, 300 to 400 people, are in hospital beds when care could be provided for them in a nursing home setting but that is not happening fast enough. Part of the problem is that nursing homes are not able to provide the support they will require because they feel they are not getting sufficient financial support to do so. I am just asking that this be reviewed in...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2022)

Colm Burke: May I come back to the Minister regarding Heather House in Cork? There are 60 additional beds there in a brand new building. There were 50 beds but we added another 60, which are not yet fully occupied. All of the hospitals in Cork are under serious pressure and we cannot get patients out.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2022)

Colm Burke: In fairness to the HSE in the south and south west, it has acquired the golf links hotel, the Blarney, where it will provide an extra 50 beds. However, I am concerned that, when we finish the building work in March, we will again leave 50 beds unoccupied for a period of time. We could have anything up to 100 step-down beds available but not being utilised. I am a bit concerned about...