Results 2,521-2,540 of 26,350 for speaker:David Cullinane

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: That is the point I am making. With respect, I am not the one who said that these cards will be in place on 1 June. The Minister stood up on the floor of the Dáil on budget day to take all of the glory and said it would be done by 1 June. There was no sense that there would have to be negotiations or there would be the process Mr. Watt spoke about, which he said takes time. That is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: I need to respond to the Chair because once the Minister makes a decision, it is up to the officials to deliver it. Mr. Watt is involved in those talks, is he not?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: The Department is. I am asking questions of the Department, which is engaged in talks with representative bodies that are dragging on and there does not seem to be any conclusion to them or at least no sense of when that will happen. I will finish on this and say that-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: To finish-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: My point is that a date was set; it was not set by me-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: -----here we are now, with the day come and gone.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: More than four weeks. Deputy Lahart is a brave man to say it will be in place in the next few weeks.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: We will see if it happens in four weeks. I wish to move on to elective-only hospitals. There does not seem to be a clear timeframe. Mr. Watt spoke about finalised design changes and expediting the process. We were told there would be a step-change in how we can deliver on big infrastructural projects in healthcare. It is frustrating for us again that we do not seem to have clear...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: I have a final question. I gave the heads-up that I would ask this. I am talking about the elective-only hospitals. Another hospital for which we are still waiting for timelines is the national children's hospital. Is Mr. Watt aware of any serious design flaws anywhere in that hospital that could delay the project very significantly? Has he personally been made aware of any potential...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: Mr. Watt has not been made aware of them personally. I thank him very much.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: One of the big promises of Sláintecare is that we would, as best we can, decouple private care and activity from the public space and public care. That encompasses an awful lot, and part of the problem that we have in the public system is the huge amount of outsourcing that happens. We can look at agency staff, management consultancy and all of that area. In primary care especially,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: How many salaried GPs have we hired in the last five years?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: No, how many have we hired in the last five years? Or ten years even?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: That is what I am saying, so we are at ground zero. My question is how do we get from ground zero to something more substantial, where we actually have contracts in place? We know all of these things take time. We spoke earlier about urgency, and the need to do things better and smarter. I am trying to tease out where we are at with it. What Mr. Watt said is nobody is against it, but...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: That is something that obviously cannot be done next week, next month, or even next year, could it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: I understand that from a policy perspective, the Government has to make a decision that it is going to do it. I appreciate that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: What might help is if Mr. Watt gave this committee a briefing note on who exactly in the Department and the HSE is looking at this, what meetings have taken place on it, what groundwork has been done, what concepts are out there generally, and if there are any timeframes as to when we might move in that direction. Would that be something that the committee could be furnished with?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Implementation of Sláintecare Reforms: Department of Health and HSE (Resumed) (14 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: Okay. On a related issue, we are talking here about trying to decouple private activity from public care, and making sure that public patients have access to care. Maybe the head of the HSE, Mr. Gloster, might be able to take this one. We are seeing, at the moment, some private nursing homes saying that they may not take fair deal patients. There is a briefing for Oireachtas Members today...

Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Second Stage (13 Jun 2023)

David Cullinane: I am sharing time with colleagues. I welcome the legislation and the debate today. We are broadly supportive of this Bill but we will bring forward some amendments on Committee Stage which I will discuss later. The Bill is a very important and long overdue public health measure. It was needed years ago when vaping was a new technology and before it was heavily and aggressively marketed...