Results 7,501-7,520 of 8,015 for speaker:Jonathan O'Brien

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: And timely information.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: I agree with the Minister. Where we have a difference of opinion, and where I have a difficulty, however, is that the Minister appointed the board.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: The Minister put that expertise on the board. That board was tasked with the responsibility of bringing this project to fruition within budget. If there were failings of the board, then those have to be laid directly at the feet of the Minister. I do not know if the Minister accepts that responsibility and those failings. I am firm in my belief, however, that the political accountability...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: This is the board-----

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: The Minister did not really have an option.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: Let us be fair. The report was very clear. The Minister did not have an option at that stage.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: The difficulty is that by the time the Minister was in a position to make that decision, it was too late to do anything else because of the failings that had happened previously.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: We could have retendered at an earlier stage if we had been aware of the issues that were coming down the line.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: The big issue for me, and it is nothing personal in terms of the two people sitting on either side of the Minister, is that, to the best of my knowledge, both Mr. Desmond and Mr. Breslin were on the steering committee. They became aware in April that there was an issue with a potential cost overrun. Ms Tracey Conroy asked for a memo to be sent to the Minister in, I believe, May. That memo...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: I understand that.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: I accept that.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: Despite all of that, and this is my final comment, we had an official from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform sitting on that particular board. That raises even more concerns for me given the position he held within the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and what this report states in terms of the information that was coming forward to the steering group and the ability...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: We may not have that expertise but we have a building control policy framework. We have many layers of oversight outside of individual Departments.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: I am reluctant to do so but I will go back to the CervicalCheck issue. Can the Minister outline say what would have happened if the free smear tests had not been offered at that time?

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: I presume medical criteria had to be met for a doctor to decide whether to refer a woman for a repeat smear. Perhaps the Chairman can answer that question.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: It is important because there is a narrative being put out that because a free smear test was offered to women, everyone who went to their GP ended up getting a smear. We now know that 50% did not get a smear test. This is a personal opinion but if the Minister had not done what he did at that time in real time, given where we were in terms of confidence in the screening programme, I...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: That is regrettable. I also accept that when that decision was made, it had to be made in real time. I want to give the Minister the opportunity now to explain how we will address that because he said earlier that that is where the conversation needs to be focused. We are in a situation now again where we need to provide confidence to the 80,000 women who are waiting for those results. We...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: In the next couple of weeks we will have a greater idea of whether we can secure that extra capacity.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: I am sure the Minister is not just reliant on that particular capacity which has been identified. If we cannot secure that extra capacity, are we still looking at trying to get it elsewhere or is it the case that we have this potential capacity which we are now exploring and we are not looking outside of that?

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: I will not say too much else on the children's hospital but I have been asked to put on the record that at the next residents project monitoring committee meeting, a senior official from the contractor will be in attendance to discuss it with them. I am aware some of the residents are here. I am just confirming that will happen.