Results 18,721-18,740 of 26,792 for speaker:David Cullinane
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (7 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: I know it is a live contract and I am not trying to be unfair to Mr. Gunning or anybody else. If he knows the information and is not prepared to give it to us, that is unacceptable. I am not asking for anything other than the number of claims that have been settled and the additional cost of those claims. Can he say why it is not possible for him to give me that information today?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: I have a number of very simple questions for Ms Canavan to begin with. I am trying to get a sense of what line Department has overall responsibility for the DCC.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: Does any Department have overall responsibility?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: My time is very limited. Ms Canavan is saying the Department of Health has elements of it and other Departments have other elements but that there is no Department with overall responsibility.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: I understand that but what I am saying is no Department has overall responsibility.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: Okay, so the Department of Health is the lead Department.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: Okay. What Department is responsible for the travel element?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: Yes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: Yes, but which Department is responsible? What of the queries, like those from people who are stuck in Malta, for example? There are questions of whether or not you need a DCC to travel in the first place or if other forms of vaccine proof may be acceptable. Which Department is responsible for that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: Okay. I move to Ms Canavan's opening statement and some of what she said about call centres. She said: We know there have been long waiting times for many callers and the centre has not been able to meet the level of demand, which involved over 40,000 calls in the past two days and more than 34,000 calls yesterday alone. This far exceeds estimates of call centre demand based on an...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: I apologise to Ms Canavan but I must stop her there. We have had Ministers say that the DCC is also being used for domestic purposes. We have had many people making queries about when they will receive their DCC but also about proof of recovery. We know that was one of the reasons the helpline was being set up, or at least it was one of the uses of the helpline. What Ms Canavan is saying...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: It would not have taken a rocket scientist to figure out that there would be very high demand. I am not putting all of this on Ms Canavan. However, the communication has been absolutely appalling. People anticipated that they would be able to make a call and get a response and that has not happened. I want to drill down into the information. Ms Canavan said that 40,000 calls were made on...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: That was the number of calls made. Is Ms Canavan saying that only 2,826 calls were handled on Monday and Tuesday?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: Is there a breakdown of those figures?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: That is part of the problem. We can take it for granted that 2,826 people had their calls processed and their information processed. I would imagine that there are thousands of people who did not. Would it be fair to assume that there are many people who simply did not get processed on Monday and Tuesday?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: How many staff members are working in those call centres at this point? Are they all based in Ireland or are some based outside Ireland?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: I just need the numbers because I have very little time.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: I just needed the figures so I thank Mr. Tierney for that. My final question relates to a tweet that was put out by the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, on Monday. He said:"... the DCC is not essential for travelling, you can still travel on your vaccine card or a negative PCR test!" As we know, however, and as people in Malta found out, that is in fact not the case. Those people...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: I accept all that, but my point is that a Minister of State said that a DCC is not essential for travel. I am simply asking if that is good advice.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the Roll-out of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (21 Jul 2021)
David Cullinane: I will follow up on those points. All our questions today relate to travel, and we know the certificate will also be used for domestic purposes. Many of the details are still being finalised, but the system is to come into operation on Monday. I ask that a briefing be given to members of the health committee, if they so choose, on the matter. There will be many questions about how this...