Results 3,561-3,580 of 36,054 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: I welcome the Secretary General and officials to the committee. I appreciate them coming before us to deal with issues in respect of health. While I am conscious that we are talking about percentages, existing levels of service, ELS, and, in some cases, billions, the real impacts of the decisions taken by Government just a couple of weeks ago are now being felt. They are being felt in the...

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 ELS provision for last year was €796 million. Is that correct?

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: Would Mr. Moloney accept that a higher percentage of ELS funding was provided last year than will be provided next year?

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: Does Mr. Moloney accept that, even when disability services, the ELS provision for which was €131 million this year, are included, a higher percentage of ELS funding was provided for health last year than will be provided this year?

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: Even though we have an aging population and more people, as a percentage, less is being provided for ELS next year than was provided last year.

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: What did the Department of Health request as regards ELS for 2024? We know the Department provided it with €708 million but what was the ask?

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 believe that is the figure he gave the committee. The Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform obviously did not agree with that figure.

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 accept and would expect that, in some cases, Departments ask for a higher level of funding for ELS than might be required or granted but, in this case, the ELS provision the Department of Health asked for was three times what the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, eventually provided. We are talking about a difference of €1.3 billion. No other Department would have seen as great a...

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 apologise to Mr. Moloney for the disruption. We were talking about existing levels of service and the provision in this regard by the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, in the health Vote. Does Mr. Moloney acknowledge that of the requested €2 billion, his Department provided €708 million? I have made the point that Departments would normally, I imagine, ask for more than what 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: I do not want to go there because, in my view, it is a bum argument. Departments would not be doing their job if they were not looking for new measures to enhance services. ELS, that is, what is needed to keep things standing still, should be something we are able to calculate. The Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and the Minister are saying...

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: We learned from RTÉ that Bernard Gloster wrote to his line Minister before the budget outlining his concerns regarding the allocation that was to be made. He said there would be "significant and punitive risks to the public" and that it was "imperative" that the Government should be "in no doubt as to the position". This was in respect of a Government decision being taken to provide...

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: With respect, I appreciate there is a non-core allocation, which is a one-off allocation, the majority of which is made up of measures relating to the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine, but after next year, that money will no longer be there. The CEO of the HSE came before the health committee and made the point that the deficit this year is being driven by demand and inflation. He...

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 understand from Mr. Moloney’s previous question that he had no engagement with him whatsoever in terms of these negotiations.

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: There were none. That is what he said to the committee. From a process perspective, were Mr. Moloney and the Minister completely unaware of the views of the HSE CEO during this period?

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 quite taken aback that the CEO of the HSE wrote to the Minister about what was about to be agreed at budget and the Minister, we are told, with commentary, passed that on and that Mr. Moloney, as Secretary General of the Department, was not aware of the views of the CEO who was asked to implement this budget. The CEO made it very clear that this deficit is, in the main, recurring, that...

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: A spokesperson for the Minister of Health gave the following to the media in the last number of days. He said that he immediately sent Mr. Gloster’s letter with comments to the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. As Secretary General of that Department, Mr. Moloney is saying he had no knowledge of that, no sight of that letter and that the...

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: When the CEO of the HSE is telling the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform that what it is about to do by significantly underfunding health will have a significant and punitive risk to the public, and he is saying it is imperative the Government is in no doubt as to this position before it signs off on it, does Mr. Moloney not believe it should be...

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 did by sending it to the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform.

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. We know that €708 million has been provided in ELS. What will the deficit be this year? From the information that Mr. Moloney has to hand, and we understand that may move in the coming weeks, what is his best estimate of the deficit in the HSE-Department of Health this year?

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: What is very shortly?