Results 3,101-3,120 of 35,549 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: If, next week, the Department provides a Revised Estimate and a supplementary budget for the Department and the HSE this year of €1.1 billion, and we can accept that it may be a bit less or a bit more than that, then there is a shortfall that the HSE will have of €400 million that it will have to carry into next year. On an accrual basis, it has entered into the contracts and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I am talking about the difference between cash and accrual.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: So, Mr. Moloney acknowledges that there is an overrun - or a deficit, sorry, because the reality of it is that there is an underfunding. Mr. Moloney acknowledges that there is a deficit this year, probably in the region of €1.1 billion.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Okay, but it is in that ballpark. He has acknowledged that it is in that ballpark, on a cash basis. On an accrual basis, that number will be significantly higher. It will be €100 million higher. It will not be provided for in the Supplementary Estimate and therefore it has to be carried forward, and the Department has provided no money for it in next year's budget. Is that not the case?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Hold on a minute. There is €708 million in ELS funding and €100 million for specific new measures. The €708 million is made up of numerous parts. I ask Mr. Moloney, as Secretary General, to provide this oversight committee with great detail on how he and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, arrived at the figure of €708 million. For example, how much of this funding is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: On this €1 billion in non-core expenditure, Mr. Moloney is the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. As an Opposition finance spokesperson, am I supposed to pretend that the €550 million allocated for Covid-related expenditure is not really for that - nod, nod, wink, wink - and that it has actually been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Mr. Moloney is willing to accept the HSE's position on that matter.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: He is willing to accept the position of the HSE and the Department on that but, when both of them say that the deficit this year is €1.5 billion and that, regardless of what they do, two thirds of that will be recurring, he and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, say no, that they will give them €708 million and that they will have to introduce a recruitment embargo. We talk about...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Robert Watt has never said that to Mr. Moloney.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Hang on.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Is Mr. Moloney trying to tell me that, during the budget process, the Department of Health did not tell him that it was going to run a deficit this year, that it could not stop most of that and that it is going to repeat itself next year? Why were Robert Watt and the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, asking for €2 billion? It is because of that exact fact, that this is recurring.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Let us move to another question because, if my understanding of the issue is correct, it makes a mockery of the budget. Is the €550 million allocated for health expenditure related to Covid really for Covid expenditure or is Mr. Moloney saying it is for something else?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Is that demand going to disappear?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: The presentation Mr. Moloney is giving here is not the presentation the Department of Health and the head of the HSE has given the Joint Committee on Health. They were crystal clear and could not be clearer that they are sticking to their guns on this issue and saying that the deficit is €1.5 billion and that two thirds of this is recurring. They are not looking for one-offs; they...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Mr. Moloney talks about financial risk. That is recognised in most plans, especially in a Department or agency of this size. That is not what Bernard Gloster is talking about. He is saying he is going to present a plan with a built-in deficit and that this will be first time he can remember that happening. He is saying that, with the money Mr. Moloney's Department has provided, it is not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I am not talking about financial risk. There is going to be a deficit. In service plans-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Is it acceptable to Mr. Moloney, as General Secretary in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan and Reform, that the head of the HSE presents a plan that will have an in-built deficit before we even open the doors in January of next year and that he is saying there will be an in-built deficit?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Explain it to me.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Is Mr. Moloney saying that an in-built deficit would be incompatible with that legislation?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Budget 2024 Expenditure Ceiling and Resource Allocation for the Department of Health and HSE: Discussion (14 Nov 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Mr. Moloney would advise the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan and Reform who oversees expenditure.