Results 43,381-43,400 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: I take exception with the Minister saying it is correct now. Of course the Minister believed it was the right decision at the time. He made the decision and that is fine. I find it extraordinary that he would state that it is correct now. There are 80,000 women around the country waiting for eight or nine months, with hundreds of thousands waiting for the HPV test, which he said would be...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: We will move on to the national children's hospital and PwC. This is a procedural point, but it is nonetheless important. Several weeks ago the Dáil passed a motion, accepted by the Minister and his Government, by an overwhelming majority, to include in the PwC report an analysis of the implications for cost and timing of moving the site. I wrote to the Minister directly after that...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: To be clear, we did not want PwC to ascertain what the implications of moving would have been in September last year. The direct call made by the Dáil was that the Government instruct PwC to include an analysis of the effect of such a move now, because a number of paediatricians, parents of sick children and concerned citizens around the country believe it is still the right thing to...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Can the Minister confirm whether, after the Dáil vote three weeks ago, he instructed his officials to contact PwC and tell it to include that analysis? We were adding in an additional term of reference.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: The guaranteed maximum price potentially has a huge implication on this year's Estimates. This committee was told repeatedly, not by the Minister but by the development board and the Department of Health that the great advantage of this two-stage process was that the State now had a guaranteed maximum price and that any future cost overruns would now be borne by the contractor. That was the...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: In the interests of time, I am not asking the Minister about the two-stage approach. The Department and the board came here and told us that the State now had a guaranteed maximum price.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: It is the result of the two-stage approach. The important point is that we were told that any future cost escalations were going to be the responsibility of the contractor. PwC said that was complete nonsense, and that the future cost escalations will be borne by the Irish people. Can the Minister explain why there is such a total divergence of views between the Department and the...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: That is fair.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: There is still a fairly big divergence between what we were told and what this report says.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: The Minister referenced cost reduction opportunities. This was one of the biggest disappointments of the report for me. In 128 pages only two pages were given over to that issue, and one of those pages was mainly a pie chart. I do not accept PwC's findings on this. It is strong in some areas but it is very weak here. It is essentially saying that 85% of the total cost is already...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: I have a question on the maternity hospital.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: In that case, I will squeeze both my questions together. In a recent response to a parliamentary question, the Minister stated that no serious work was yet under way on the maternity hospital and that the design phase had not started. One of the most important parts of this hospital is its co-location with the maternity hospital. Is there any provision in the Estimates to seriously ramp up...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Does the Minister think that is acceptable?

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: We will know more as the money is spent but is the forecast for the year that the health budget will come in on profile?

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: On consultants' and GPs' pay, we very much welcome the reversal of the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI. It was one of the things for which Fianna Fáil had pushed hard in the budget negotiations. There is also the huge issue of a pay discrepancy for new entrant consultants where consultants have the same qualifications and it so happens one of them worked...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: The GP contract provides for the reversal of the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI. To the best of my knowledge, there was provision made for this in the Estimates in anticipation that the unwinding would begin this year.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Provision would still be made for consultants' pay in the budget.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: The Chairman asked several questions about Sláintecare. From memory, the Sláintecare report estimates that the requirement in year one will be around €600 million or €700 million. The requirement for activity specifically related to Sláintecare as opposed to things that were happening is about €20 million. Do the Minister and the Department broadly...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Does the Minister have costings attached to that revised sequencing?

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Regardless of its sequencing, I am asking about the costs in the first three years because we need to make provision for them. I ask the Minister to provide the overall spend per year required to deliver Sláintecare in order that we can look at that, relative to what is outlined in the Sláintecare report.