Results 1,761-1,780 of 32,547 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I want to tease out the question of what constitutes an allowance. I have provided some figures which I either brought with me or worked out during the session. The figure for the HSE is 2.6%, while that for the Garda is approximately 16% and that for the Prison Service is 35%. These are the figures for allowances as a percentage of the total wage bill. From what we have to date, the HSE...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: It is considerably lower than the figures for other agencies that have a large rostering component in the delivery of work.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: This goes to the heart of it. I want to ensure I understand it correctly. Does the HSE definition of allowances include night duty?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: Does it include weekend payments?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: Does the figure include overtime or on-call duties?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: Other agencies include these as allowances. I am keen to illustrate the point. Let us consider night duty. The Irish Prison Service has an allowance for night duty, which took the place of the existing overtime payment. The Garda has an allowance for overtime that evolved from its industrial relations heritage. The Civil Service has an allowance for officials who are on call. We went...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I fully accept that. I am not doubting the information Mr. O'Brien has given me. I simply say that when the Garda Commissioner was here last week, I asked him if he included overtime as part of his definition of allowances. He said, "Yes". We have varying definitions of what an allowance is.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I understand that point completely.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I am not suggesting Mr. O'Brien is trying to mislead me. I am simply making the point that when we had, for example, the Irish Prison Service before the committee and talked about how it deals with people who have to work at the weekend, we were told it was done by means of allowances. The prison service defines that payment as an allowance. The HSE does not.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: Are Labour Court recommendations sector specific? When Mr. O'Brien speaks about Labour Court recommendations is he referring to a ruling that is specific to the health services?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: Let us look at the on-call payment. When the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform came before the committee, the Secretary General of the Department said someone had to be available at weekends to make sure the IT systems worked. He described the payment to such a person as an allowance. In the HSE that would not be called an allowance.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: Does Mr. O'Brien regard those payments as allowances? Are they part of the 2.61%?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: So, the cost of on-call is not part of the €166 million.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I understand.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I understand that, and I will not go on with this forever. However, the allowances percentage of total HSE wages is massively lower than equivalent figures elsewhere. That got me into working through how the HSE defines an allowance and what are the components of a HSE allowance. Following the hearings we have had so far, I observe that the HSE has a far narrower definition of what an...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I understand that. I know that everything Mr. O'Brien is saying is true and makes sense within the health service as he is describing it. I am just teasing this out because he has a different definition of an allowance from the definition we heard in our other hearings. If we were to use the same definition of allowances for the HSE as has been used elsewhere the figure would be much...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: A different rate of pay. That is fine. It is just of interest to me that this is managed differently elsewhere, by means of what other people would see as an allowance. You do not see it as an allowance, but as part of pay.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: That is fine. In the table entitled Health Service Executive Allowances Review: Information for Public Accounts Committee, there is a section on decisions from DPER on review. This may seem like an obvious question, but I will ask it anyway. When you say, "abolished for new beneficiaries" about allowance No. 15, for example, which is for second opinions by consultant psychiatrists, does...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: When we say, "new beneficiaries", does that mean a new consultant psychiatrist could not access this allowance but that an existing one could?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: Are all the allowances shown in red in the 88? If not, will the delegates explain one of the allowances that is not listed in the 88?