Results 25,901-25,920 of 26,889 for speaker:David Cullinane

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: We know that. It is my last question, and the Minister did not answer it, with respect. I accept what he said. That is not in dispute. What is in dispute is that there were vacant posts on 31 December 2023 that were abolished. If the Minister is disputing the figure from the INMO, has he the HSE's figure? I am asking him a very straight question. He is the Minister. Have posts been...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: You do not know the number.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: You do not know the number.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: What we need is a workforce plan that is aligned with recruitment, if we are training healthcare professionals. That is why we have training targets. We are training them to come to work in the public system. Every graduate should be offered a job in the public system. That is not runaway recruitment. It is common sense. If the Minister is able to furnish figures for vacancies that were...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (17 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: Care Champions is an organisation that speaks for and represents many people who lost loved ones in care settings during Covid, as the Tánaiste knows. Its members are protesting outside the Dáil today. They have a number of asks, one of which is that we have, to use their words, a full and transparent inquiry into the Government's response to the pandemic and continuing care...

Report of the Joint Committee on Assisted Dying: Motion (17 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important issue. I was a member of the committee for a very short time when I replaced one of my party colleagues. The committee did its work diligently, sat for a long time and we had extensive discussions, disagreements and arguments on a range of issues. As has been pointed out, there was a majority committee report and a minority report, which...

Public Health Service Staffing: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: I thank the Labour Party for tabling this motion and giving us an opportunity to discuss this important issue. In all the discussions on budget 2023 and budget 2024, as the Minister knows, I pointed out robustly that the health service was not getting the funding it needed to stand still, that we were running significant deficits, and that at some point, a cheque would have to be written to...

Public Health Service Staffing: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: That recruitment embargo was put in place by the head of the HSE. I did not interrupt the Minister. I have my time. The Minister can dispute what I am saying but it is indisputable. The HSE said there was a need to contain costs. He sent communications to the health service that he was putting in place a recruitment embargo with very limited exceptions relating to final-year nurses and...

Public Health Service Staffing: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: Hear, hear.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: I have always raised issues in my constituency very robustly and, I hope, very fairly with the Taoiseach and Ministers. I am growing very impatient, however, regarding the issue of Waterford Airport and the need for State funding to extend its runway. There is a lot of very harsh feeling in Waterford regarding comments made by the Minister of State, Deputy Lawless, last week, when he used...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: This is an annual Bill to review the risk equalisation mechanism that supports the community-based health service insurance market. It revises the stamp duty levy on policies and the risk equalisation credits payable to insurers for 2025. Risk equalisation as a principle ensures that costs are constant across the lifespan of the individual. It seeks to ensure, where possible, that age,...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Instruction to Committee (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: I will absolutely support these amendments. This is something for which we have collectively called for some time. I will make a broader point that there have been very significant developments over the past number of years in supporting women in menopause, including the establishment of menopause clinics. A whole range of other measures were put in place. The Minister outlined other...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: The point is well made.

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: I welcome the Minister's response in providing clarity on how free HRT will be rolled out. If I am reading what the Minister has said right, there are any number of ways in which this could have been done, including providing free GP consultations, but what the Minister has gone for is free medicines and free products, stating this is the best way to do it. I would like clarity on this...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: They are all on the topic of HRT.

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: Why does the State not just cover the entire cost?

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: I am speaking about the full cost of the medicine.

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: Leave the GPs out of it; just the pharmacists.

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: I have a quick further point. Is there any sense as to what that margin might be? That is the obvious question we are going to be asked. I get what the Minister is saying. I am not interested in the GP side of it. When a woman goes to get the product, the State will pay for the cost of the product and then the margin, profit, or whatever we want to call it is paid by the person. What...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: So it is not free HRT