Results 1,101-1,120 of 7,412 for speaker:Neasa Hourigan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (7 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: Do I have time for one more question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (7 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: My question is for all of the witnesses. Could somebody outline the interaction mentioned in some of the opening statements regarding the challenge of building a hospital as healthcare changes and best practice and evidence-based design moves quickly? By the time a hospital has been designed and finished, it often looks much different. What is the interaction of clinicians with final...

Joint Committee On Health: Impact of Covid-19 on Mental Health of Travellers: Pavee Point (13 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I thank everyone for being here today. I would be hard pressed to find a group with whom I would like to talk through the mental health impacts of Covid-19 more than the Traveller community. It is a timely discussion. I have a couple of questions. I will start with the slightly dry question of the issues around data. We hear over and over again at the health committee and this committee...

Joint Committee On Health: Impact of Covid-19 on Mental Health of Travellers: Pavee Point (13 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: It is an important point. The disaggregated data issue does not just touch on the Traveller experience, as other cohorts and communities are affected. The further we go on with this discussion, the more it is emerging as a bigger issue than people realised. As we are talking about different communities and challenges with mental health I would like to discuss particular groups within the...

Joint Committee On Health: Impact of Covid-19 on Mental Health of Travellers: Pavee Point (13 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I know Senator Flynn cannot speak today so I will paraphrase her and say how important it is that mental health services meet people where they are.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I will stay on that issue for the moment. It is important that we receive this aggregated data on whether the full complement of services has been provided on the land we are discussing. I note the phrases the Minister used today include "have been told" and "they are available" but none of those gives assurance that things like gender-affirming surgery or specific reproductive rights...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I will ask the question in another way. Will St. Vincent's University Hospital give us those numbers?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I thank the Minister. I reiterate, and I am sure St. Vincent's University Hospital staff are listening to this, that we need those numbers. We must have them to move forward with this. I call on St. Vincent's University Hospital to release that kind of information. It is very important. I will move on to the issue of the lease. When will the proposed lease begin?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I will expand a little on this issue because the Minister has members of staff who have worked on these projects before. We already have a project on site and excavation works taking place. Will the lease be in place from, let us say, the preparatory works or substantial completion stage or is it predicated on the establishment of the holding company?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I suspect the Minister is right. We are talking about a 99-year or 150-year lease. A lease commencing from the commissioning stage could be a ten-year process, while one commencing from the preparatory works stage will probably be a five-year process if everything goes to plan, which we know does not always happen in Ireland, and will actually be a 140-year or, perhaps, an 89-year lease....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I have had this conversation about how we look at cost-benefit analysis and the time horizons contained therein. Estimating a hospital's lifespan, even the building itself, at 40 years or 50 years is not a starter. Certainly, architects and project managers on the project would not be doing their job and would definitely be failing in their role if they expected to significantly replace...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: Is the project being worked on the basis of a 40 year to 50 year lifespan for the building?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: To be clear, if we have a lease of 99 years, and we might take ten years or five years to commission and build it, we are talking in the region of 80 years. At the end of 80 years, has the Department done a piece of work on what happens next? How do we recover the State's asset? Can we renegotiate? What happens?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: In the context of things like hospitals and universities, long-term trusts that last not just for decades but centuries would not be that unusual. To have absolutely no plan other than to negotiate the lease a decade before it ends, is not really much of a plan for a massive piece of State infrastructure that will provide such a core service to people. I realise I may be nearly out of-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: All of those variables are true. Unfortunately, we know we will not own the land.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: Many of the hospitals that provide services to us now were in place 150 years ago.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (14 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I think I am out of time.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jul 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I thank everyone for being here this morning. It was a late night last night. Today the committee will engage with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, to discuss the summer economic statement. I welcome him, Mr. John McCarthy, chief economist, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, and Mr. John Kinnane, principal officer. Before we begin, I wish to...