Results 4,001-4,020 of 35,549 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: That is not true. There is a significant issue, which the Minister knows. This report has five conclusions. I referred to the third one already. The fifth one refers to "The ‘commitment’ to Trinity College Dublin by the Department of Health of €2 million per year for research funding". A commitment was made. The Minister is disputing the fact that a commitment was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Nobody has ever claimed that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Nobody has claimed that but Dr. Holohan would personally benefit from the €2 million because a portion of that would have paid his wages.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Nobody is suggesting that either.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Nobody has suggested that either.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Let us be very clear that the report makes it clear that the research funding was linked atypically to one named individual. That is the point it is making. If the Government is providing research funding, give it to the board and let it decide how to fund it. That is not what happened here. This is funding that was allocated on the basis that the wages, which were the same as what he was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I do not know but I know that if I cannot get my emails on this computer, I can get them in my phone, in the Minister's office or wherever if I log on. Can the Minister explain what happened?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: In those two weeks, including the time the Minister was in Texas, was he not able to access any communication by email, either from any Government Departments or his own Department?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Did the Secretary General think that by sending an email from an uncorrupted device, it would somehow corrupt the rest of the Department? Is that his understanding of how emails work?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Did the Minister make any other arrangements? I imagine if he was in America, he had staff with him. He did not want to be out of email communication. Surely to God people were able to send the Minister documents, briefing notes and such, and surely somebody else on the team had an uncorrupted device that emails could have been sent to? Were there no arrangements like that and was it a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: That is very interesting. Can I ask the Minister about the national children's hospital? We have seen more stuff in the media over the last number of days. We learned that BAM informed the board of its updated programme of works and that it will now be the end of May before work is complete. Is that the case and when did the Minister and the Department become aware of it? Why did the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I should have said for clarity that this committee has taken an interest in the procurement contracts and value for money because it deals with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and because of the substantial overruns in the national children's hospital, the cost of which it is now suggested will increase to €2 billion from an original...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Is it talk or has one been submitted?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: That is clear. There is an ongoing dispute between BAM and the board. I do not want to get into the middle of that. At the end of the day, it is children who are suffering as a result of this. Were BAM and the board in talks to settle the outstanding claims? There is a significant number of outstanding claims, some of which are being settled in the High Court and some through...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: To clarify, there are always talks about all claims and there are much more than 1,000 claims in this case. The job of the State is to get the price as low as possible. We are all at one on this. My question asks whether talks took place to settle the overall figure of the claims collectively, that is to come to a figure for them collectively instead of going through the different dispute...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Was a settlement figure ever put on the table as part of those talks?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Mr. Tierney is talking about time certainty but I am talking about a settlement figure. Will he inform the committee whether a settlement figure was put on the table during those talks?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Is it the case that Mr. Tierney cannot say or that the Department was not informed by the board? A settlement figure for all outstanding claims may have been put forward in those talks.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I know they are but I am focused on the cost. That is the question I am asking. I appreciate Mr. Tierney's answer but I am asking whether an overall figure for the outstanding claims was put on the table and whether the Department was made aware of it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I am not asking Mr. Tierney to give me a figure. Did the board recommend the figure to the Department?