Results 3,721-3,740 of 24,567 for speaker:Róisín Shortall

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: Okay. In Mr. Watt's absence, I welcomed the news on the Sláintecare contract. I congratulate everybody who has been involved in this very welcome and long overdue breakthrough. As I understand it, the Minister has indicated that there will be funding for 1,000 posts. Is that correct? I thought that was in the press statement. What number of posts has been funded for next year?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: The timing is critically important for patients, but also to signal very clearly to existing NCHDs that are probably planning to go away in the coming month, and also to encourage the many Irish-trained doctors who are abroad to come back. It is important that this is given absolute priority and that the recruitment process is set in train as quickly as possible.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: I think it is fair to say that it is a very attractive contract for lots of different reasons.   I want to move on to the other issue that was coming before the Cabinet, which is elective hospitals. What is the story with the hospital for Dublin? What is holding up that announcement? Could Mr. Watt also confirm that it will be a full elective hospital? It was quite disappointing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: That is quite disappointing because a lot of the cases on the long waiting lists would require inpatient care.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: Is Mr. Tierney talking about expanding the hospital or-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: -----re-using different aspects of it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: In relation to the three hospitals, is there potential for having a single design?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: A lot could be learned from the private sector in that regard. I refer to the Sports Surgery Clinic in Santry, for example, which motors through waiting lists very quickly. It would be great if we could do the same. On the Dublin hospital, the Sláintecare committee modelled this on what had been done in Edinburgh, where NHS Scotland purchased a private hospital. Has that been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: Okay. I will go back very briefly to my earlier comments when I referred to the health service being crisis driven. I am not sure there is any health service anywhere that is not crisis driven. It was not any reflection on the health service, and I want to make that very clear. When we look at the media we can see the multiple crises that arise every day. That was not a reflection on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: I know the Minister is keen to go ahead with this, which is commendable in many ways to get movement on it and to start recruitment, but there is not a lot of point in recruiting those posts unless the areas of responsibility are agreed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: Assuming then that the areas of responsibility and accountability will be set out very clearly, would Mr. Watt accept that those areas need to be legally underpinned in terms of setting the new contracts?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: The difficulty is that you will not be able to change contracts if they have already been awarded.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: I thank the Department and the HSE for the attendance here this morning. I also thank the delegates for their attendance throughout the year to discuss a number of different issues, particularly the progress on implementing Sláintecare. We look forward to further engagement on its implementation and continuing the good news on the reform programme. I wish everyone a very happy...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (6 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: I too want to raise the patient safety Bill. We have waited over six months for Government amendments. They were circulated and we received them on Friday morning. There are 42 pages of amendments from the Minister. There has been no briefing and no pre-legislative scrutiny, and the deadline was on Monday morning for amendments to those amendments. That is an entirely unreasonable way of...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: That is meaningless. When the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform becomes Minister for Finance in two weeks' time, will he undertake to review the level of this tax-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: -----and introduce a proper vacant homes tax?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: That is not a scheme. That is tokenism.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: The Government just is not serious.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: I did not ask the Minister about local authority voids. That is something entirely different. I asked him about the vacant homes tax and the fact that tens of thousands of homes are lying idle at the moment. They are the most effective way to increase the stock of houses available to our young people, many of whom currently have no choice but to go abroad. Two out of three nurses are...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2022)

Róisín Shortall: I too will raise BPFI report. We know from the report that rents in Ireland have increased by more than four times the EU average over the past 12 years. Those figures absolutely lay bare the extent of the crisis in this country. Under the Government, the fact is that things are getting worse. Rents, house prices and homelessness are all at record levels and are continuing to...