Results 3,261-3,280 of 74,100 for speaker:Bernard Durkan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Preventing Bid Rigging in the Public Procurement Process: Discussion (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: What happens if the office comes across a complaint, as I did, where the bidder says it bid several times to provide a particular service or whatever, has never been successful and does not believe it can ever be successful because no matter what it does, there is always something better? What would be the cause of that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Preventing Bid Rigging in the Public Procurement Process: Discussion (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: How often is that done?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Preventing Bid Rigging in the Public Procurement Process: Discussion (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I accept that but the reason I am pursuing this issue is that, regardless of whether it happens regularly or only once every two or three years, I am anxious to ensure there are protections in place for the consumer, the bidder and the service for which the tender process is taking place. How secure can the office feel that all the procedures in place are sufficient to meet the challenges of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Preventing Bid Rigging in the Public Procurement Process: Discussion (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: The only thing I would say in this regard is that it is an important subject. We all get people who, from time to time, say to us that they have tendered for whatever proposal it is but that they did not hear from anyone or that they did not know what went on. In many cases and over many years they have tried and failed to make a tender land, as it were. I accept that there can be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Preventing Bid Rigging in the Public Procurement Process: Discussion (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I thank Ms Stewart and that will do.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Sláintecare Reforms (Resumed) (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I welcome our witnesses. We are talking my language today in that I brought up the same theme approximately five years ago. You have to put yourself in the shoes of the patient. Whatever a patient’s symptoms may be, he or she must assume the services can respond in a reasonably structured way and in a reasonable time. My first question is on the degree to which accident and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Sláintecare Reforms (Resumed) (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Are we succeeding in that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Sláintecare Reforms (Resumed) (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: That is fine. At some of these meetings, I mentioned what has been the experience of my family and, I am sure, others. We attended five accident and emergency departments in five hospitals and the scene was the same in each. For starters, there was a long waiting time. From the patient’s point of view, everything was happening behind a closed door. Alternatively, in so far as the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Sláintecare Reforms (Resumed) (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: How does the concept of time and motion apply in those situations? Mr. McCallion will say that what we are discussing is different and it cannot be done on a time-and-motion model. In fact, a lot can be done using the concept of time and motion. The public health system is competing against the private sector, where there is no such thing as waiting. It is prearranged when patients enter...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Sláintecare Reforms (Resumed) (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I have two more questions. First, there is a difficulty with recruitment at the moment, notwithstanding the significant increases in staff numbers over the past ten to 12 months. Were the most sensitive areas the recipients of those extra or required staff? The services are indicating that they want recruitment restored but it is not about using an employment agency. Recruitment needs to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Sláintecare Reforms (Resumed) (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: A written reply would be fine. I do not want to hold up proceedings. My other question is one I have already asked. To what degree has the implementation of Sláintecare been effective and which aims have been most effectively delivered?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Sláintecare Reforms (Resumed) (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I thank the witnesses.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Preventing Bid Rigging in the Public Procurement Process: Discussion (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Would Ms Stewart know if some of the bids her office observed had been suspicious or would she have taken any action in those circumstances?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Preventing Bid Rigging in the Public Procurement Process: Discussion (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Have the cases pursued in the courts been successful?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Sláintecare Reforms (Resumed) (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Some time ago, I mentioned threats to staff in hospitals, particularly in accident and emergency departments. Having witnessed such threats first hand, I thought they were very serious. Foul and insulting language has been used to staff and other patients in accident and emergency departments and there have been threatened attacks by patients on other patients. This was not just happening...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Sláintecare Reforms (Resumed) (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I have to leave for another meeting. However, the point at issue seems to be simple. It should only happen once. Patients and staff should not be targeted on an ongoing basis with that kind of behaviour. The people causing that trouble, as I have said before, should be dealt with somewhere else - maybe in a drug or alcohol treatment centre. The problem is they are in the queue, and other...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Sláintecare Reforms (Resumed) (6 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I look forward to early progress, because that is not something that should continue.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tourism Industry (5 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I strongly support the sentiments expressed by the previous speakers and the need to ensure that everything can be turned into a positive if the right initiative is taken. As regards tourism and culture, there is a wealth of information and a wealth of sources out there in buildings, locations and historical activity that the local public and the international public are most interested in.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Media Sector (5 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I have a similar supplementary question. Has the Minister noticed the extent to which pay TV seems to be introducing and forcing itself onto the airwaves? Sometimes when you scroll the channels, you get a start when you suddenly discover that you have to pay extra, along with the licence fee and all the other things, to look at certain programmes. To what extent is that likely to determine...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Sports Funding (5 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: 57. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the degree to which she expects to be in a position next year to continue to assist the sporting sector given the increased importance of sporting activity in terms of health and well-being; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53556/23]