Results 14,361-14,380 of 21,499 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Who might they have been?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: What was the nature of the conversation? Mr. McEnery knows better than anyone that negotiations between individual nursing homes and the NTPF must happen on an individual basis. Is that not right?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: There is a very good reason for that, is there not?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: What is that reason?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is in order to respect and obey competition law. Of course, that would absolutely rule out any collective actions which would influence price. Is that not right?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Price fixing.

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Exactly. Mr. McEnery has given us an account of what he said at this meeting and so on, which I will come to. Is it not the case that the meeting included discussions on the kind of influence which could be leveraged on the NTPF and the Minister in respect of the quantum of funding for the fair deal scheme and so on? Doe Mr. McEnery recall that?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Does Mr. McEnery recall discussions around increases in individual contributions to nursing homes from residents or their families?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Does Mr. McEnery accept that any move to act in a collective way or to use that type of leverage would fall foul of competition law?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Was Mr. McEnery alarmed, astounded or worried when that type of conversation emerged around him?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: It certainly would be. Would it not be very troubling if the chairman of the board of HIQA, the regulator for nursing homes, was in the middle of a conversation about suggestions or ideas in respect of such collective leveraging? That would be deeply disturbing, would it not?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. McEnery says that he discussed and addressed financial matters.

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Is he absolutely sure that is his recollection of the meeting?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. McEnery is aware that the Chairman has alluded to the fact that we are in receipt of the minutes of that meeting. We are not allowed to delve into the precise detail of them, but I have read them.

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is not my reading of his contribution to that meeting. Did he give what might be considered political advice or a political analysis of the situation?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Did he give a commentary on or an assessment of the NTPF and how it carries itself? Did he give any tactical advice as to how it should be approached?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: I assume that Mr. McEnery has seen the same minutes and memoranda of that meeting which members of this committee have seen.

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: He will agree with me that the account which he has just given and that which he gave in his opening statement are at variance with those meetings.

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: I suggest to Mr. McEnery that there is a very troubling difference between the contemporaneous note of that meeting, which we have read, and his account which, reading this, comes across as a very sanitised version of what he said, if I can use that term without offending Mr. McEnery. Does Mr. McEnery accept that is the case?

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Those minutes were not circulated to Mr. McEnery after that meeting.