Results 24,721-24,740 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Okay, I want to go on to a number of other questions. I was looking at Mr. Gloster's briefing document, and the high earners by specialty. Radiology marginally increased to become the highest discipline, from 24 to 25. Psychiatry has gone from ten to 18, which is a very sizeable jump. Surgery has gone from eight to 17. Is that to do with really plugging gaps where there is a recruitment...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Okay. I want to touch on the way funding is allocated. It is probably more to do with Mr. Walsh on the community services side, and Mr. Mulvany. Say there is an increase in the various community healthcare organisation, CHO, areas, how is that distributed? Say there is a 5% increase - I am just picking a figure off the top of my head - how is that distributed? Is it equally across the board?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: How is that assessed?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: No, I am talking about among the CHO areas. What analysis is done in each of the nine CHO areas? Is there a 5% increase across the board? Are there differences, depending on demographic changes or whatever? How is that assessed?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I will tell Mr. Walsh what I am trying to get at. We have a postcode lottery for services. It is very unequal in some services between one part of the country and another. I had a look at the HSE website in advance of the witnesses coming here, and I looked at the populations of each of the CHO areas, which are vastly different. When I looked at the numbers, it was the 2011 census that...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Are we going to see less of this postcode lottery?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I want to go back to the vacant properties. What are retained assets? Can Mr. Mulvany give me a description of that? Some are under review. What is the evaluation process for properties that are under review, and are there plans to bring any of the vacant units back into use? Mr. Mulvany might also deal with the kind of costs there are. If there are vacant units, are they being heated?...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: We have been told that already. What is being spent on heating, for example?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Are these on a risk register, or would they feature?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Are there aspects that feature on the risk register with regard to the HSE's property portfolio?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: We have a big problem with dereliction in this country. A lot of the HSE's properties are likely to be in village or town centres. The idea that a State agency would be contributing to that dereliction is becoming an even bigger issue. Will the HSE come back to us with that? We will need some detailed information on the condition of those buildings as much as anything else.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Okay. Finally, the HSE carried a deficit from 2005 when it took over from the health boards. In reality, the shape of the boards was still there. How does the accumulated deficit now feature in the HSE's management system?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: That has increased.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: How would that have increased? Will Mr. Mulvany describe how that increased?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: How can the HSE ever get rid of the accumulated deficit?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I have a number of short questions. First, I want to ask the Comptroller and Auditor General about how, in his financial statements, he identified that the Digital Hub Development Agency had incurred an expenditure of €250,000 with regard to the vacant sites levy. Does that levy apply to HSE buildings as well?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Okay. I will follow that up by way of a parliamentary question. On vaccines, is the HSE doing an assessment on the uptake given the storage costs? Is there an assessment of what the take-up might be? Anecdotally, I am hearing that people are probably feeling less at risk than they did. One will find people in risk categories where there definitely is a different attitude. How does the...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I thank Dr. Henry. I want to return to the issue of the high earners. Looking at the briefing given to us by the HSE, one related to a settlement in retirement which reflected rest days arrears from previous years. How many previous years are we talking about?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Could the HSE come back to us with that, please? There are a couple of other things which stand out. Mention was made of additional payments for cross-cover to other service area. The other service area had two consultant posts, one was vacant and one was on sick leave. Obviously, one does not want an area not to be covered so presumably that has an impact on the area, in that I assume...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: We define value for money in a much broader sense than just pure financial considerations and the HSE must find that definition itself. It is also about the quality of what one gets for the money one spends. That is why it is logical to tie the two together. Finally, on this group of issues, in table 3, No. 7 on “Emergency Medicine”, where “overtime to cover vacancy...