Results 2,721-2,740 of 21,440 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Is Mr. O'Brien saying that he will balance the books---

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: ---and bridge that gap and only take €58 million of a cut from front-line services? Is that Mr. O'Brien's position?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: I grasped that point. The problem with that scenario is that this year, reducing the cost of drugs was to bring in €124 million, but that has not happened. The recouping of the full cost of private beds in public hospitals was supposed to yield €143 million, that did not materialise. What worries me is that the witnesses are working on an assumption that by year end, that is...

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Does Mr. O'Brien understand the value of discussing the issues in a forum like this as things are happening, because this is not a theoretical exercise we are engaged in? He knows as well as I do that this is about the services that people receive in real time, in the here and now.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: I understand that Mr. O'Brien and Dr. McLoughlin are members of the Cabinet sub-committee on health. Am I correct in that assumption?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Taoiseach told the Dáil that Mr. O'Brien's predecessor at the HSE and the Secretary General from the Department of Health and Children attended the Cabinet sub-committee on health. That is the case.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Pardon the semantics but Mr. O'Brien is in attendance at that sub-committee. In terms of having that discussion with the Minister who makes the policy decisions, I hope his budgetary projections are a bit more robust. I do not see how the HSE can find €500 million by cutting €58 million from the front line. I do not buy that. I know we will have the chance retrospectively to...

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Does that cover the 35 primary health care centre locations as announced by the Minister?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: It covers the 20 and there is no provision for the additional 15.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: I want to make it clear that I am not asking Dr. McLoughlin to second-guess or overstep the Minister. What was Dr. McLoughlin's interaction with the Minister on the criteria agreed for the delivery of these centres?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Just to clarify that point, the intention is to build 20 of the 35.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: In two bundles of ten. It is not the intention to build 35.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Okay. When the budgeting for those health care centres was under way, obviously a decision was made in terms of the capital allocation for it, which was, quite correctly, the call of the Minister. The decision making around which centres might be built was clearly taken on by the Minister. In terms of the Department's internal management, I presume there is a paper trail or documentation...

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is right.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Those things were identified very publicly by the Minister as additional criteria to be applied in terms of expanding the list.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: The HSE would have been centrally involved in terms of applying the criteria in respect of drawing up these lists.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am aware of that.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Was the drawing up of the list of 20 and its expansion to 35 driven by the HSE as well?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am not questioning that but, obviously, criteria had to be applied to correspond with the financial envelope.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote Management and Budgetary Situation in 2012: Discussion with Department of Health and HSE (9 Oct 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: It would be very helpful for Mr. O'Brien, as the Accounting Officer for the HSE, to tell us the role and involvement of the HSE in identifying those 20 locations and the additional 15.