Results 64,901-64,920 of 74,100 for speaker:Bernard Durkan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: I am worried about the degree to which we can get information. I realise that Mr. Fraser does not have a direct role in this, but it could have been referred to him. It was referred to him, or run past him, as they say nowadays, in the course of the events, apparently. Well, he is well aware of the matter and agreed - or did not agree, as the case may be. I presume he agreed. In those...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: Is everybody aware of the urgency of the need to provide the kind of restructuring of the health services to which I have referred?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: Does Mr. Fraser agree that Dr. Holohan would have been particularly aware of and in a particularly strategic position to be able to make that major contribution that is now required?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: What I am concerned about at this stage is this: here we are having a major discussion about how a particular job was supposed to have been done and was done. The health committee determined in January that it was necessary now to have a plan for the health services for the future. Presumably, that applied to everybody in the Department of Health. Is Mr. Fraser aware of anybody who did not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: I know. I accept all that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: I know, but if the matter was run past Mr. Fraser at the time, notwithstanding the fact that he does not work in the Department of Health, would he have been made aware of the fact that there is a serious issue in the provision of the health services of this country at this particular time?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: Yes, I accept-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: With respect, we are holding sessions dealing with an important issue of the appointment or otherwise of a pivotal person in the provision of health services in this country over the past two and a half years. It now falls to us to make a determination as to what we are going to do in the future. Are we going to spend the next six months discussing this issue and asking questions about the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: I am quite sure what I mean. I am not criticising Mr. Fraser or anybody else but I am saying this. It is an item of futility if we are going to spend our time talking around the subject but never getting anywhere. We are going very close to that at present. We are going very close to it in the Department of Health. For example, nobody responsible, with the exception of your good self,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: If the issue is as important as it would appear to be and as it should be, why are we not indulging in the same urgency and the same degree of co-ordination and inquisition on the health services? Why are we not doing that now? Why are we sidetracked on this?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: Unfortunately we do not have anybody else to ask the question of.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: If a committee member feels somewhat differently they should tell us all of this. I am a member of the committee the same as everybody else. I have the same rights as everybody else and I am raising the question. I am doing so because everybody else in the country is talking about the issue of the health service at present. We have found at every meeting of the committee for the past 12...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: Why is Mr. Fraser here so?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: To be fair to the committee and the members of the committee, if he does not have anything further to add and he cannot answer any of the questions that have been asked to the satisfaction of the committee then it is unfair to have him before the committee. There should be somebody else before the committee at present.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: We asked-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: We then need to define what his role is in his appearance before the committee.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: Mr. Fraser's role.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: Did he have a meaningful role or a minor role or what?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: Why is he here?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Proposed Appointment to University Research Post: Department of the Taoiseach (27 Apr 2022)

Bernard Durkan: As I said from the beginning I feel we should be otherwise engaged. If there is a role for Mr. Fraser before the committee in respect of this I cannot see it and I have not seen it. I believe somebody else should be before the committee. In the event of there not being somebody available from another Department to come before the committee then the committee should examine the issues...