Results 1-20 of 27,284 for speaker:David Cullinane

Financial Resolutions 2025 - Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: What is going on in the area of health? We are 24 hours on from the budget and it is impossible to know where any of the money announced in it will be spent. What is clear is that the vast majority of the additional funding announced yesterday for health is for existing levels of service. I spoke with senior officials in the Department of Health. They informed me that this is down to the...

Financial Resolutions 2025 - Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: -----and shame on the Government for not providing that detail.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: I welcome the witnesses. I will start with page 11 of the briefing document Mr. Healy submitted. He says it is acknowledged that the purple or red calls, which fall outside the targets that are set, can see patients waiting for more than two hours for an emergency service response. Obviously, those are the ones that are most problematic for us and I imagine for patients and service users...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: I have very limited time and I do not want to go too deep into this. I am just making the point that this is an example of what is being relayed to me. Even in Mr. Healy's own report, he acknowledges that, unfortunately, there are patients waiting two hours or more in some circumstances. These are emergency calls. There needs to be a focus on how we deploy personnel and how that is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: No, I am asking Mr. Morton.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: That is not what I asked. I asked if there were any findings against any senior HR personnel to date.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: I am sorry to interrupt Mr. Healy but we have very limited time. These were very senior HR officials within the NAS. I respect the fact that there is an investigation ongoing but manipulating data, boasting about it, and making derogatory comments about other staff members is absolutely unacceptable and shocking. I will leave it there because I want to get to another issue but I hope that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: I am asking Mr. Morton.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: I am asking Mr. Morton if he is in receipt of that allowance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: I would because he is a public servant.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: He is a public servant and I am simply asking if he is in receipt of an allowance. We have to account for allowances that we get. It is a reasonable question to ask. There is an advance paramedic allowance of €10,000, which is to be paid to practising advance practitioners, not people who do not practise. There is an attempt through this roles and responsibilities review to take...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: I am going to go to Mr. Healy. It is unacceptable that we have a very well-paid public servant coming before an Oireachtas committee who cannot even confirm whether he is in receipt of an allowance. It is not an unreasonable question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: I do not believe it is inappropriate.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: It is a reasonable question. I am asking Mr. Healy to answer it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: This is not about salary scales. These are allowances and we are entitled to know who is in receipt of taxpayer-funded allowances, particularly those in senior management.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: I will finish by saying, very forcibly, that it is unacceptable that we have a very senior director in the NAS who is unprepared today to say whether he is in receipt of an allowance. That speaks for itself and the people watching these proceedings will draw their own conclusions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Ambulance Service: Discussion (8 Oct 2025)

David Cullinane: I wish to come back to the point that was made about some of those emergency calls taking two hours for a response time. That is obviously very concerning. I put a number of questions to Mr. Healy earlier, but we had limited time and it was difficult to get into the teeth of it. What are the reasons that would be the case and that in some instances people would be waiting two hours in what...