Results 44,521-44,540 of 46,456 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Food Harvest 2020 Strategy (19 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: 579. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if it is his intention that investment aid will be available across sectors to help farmers meet Food Harvest 2020 targets, fulfil higher environmental and welfare standards and improve on farm efficiency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49037/13]

Local Government Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Local Government Bill 2013. I commend the Minister on getting the Bill to this Stage. There has been agreement across the political divide for many years that local government needed to be reformed. We all hear from our constituents. We know it ourselves as practising politicians. We hear it from our colleagues who serve on local authorities. We...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: St. Catherine's.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: I thank Mr. Byrne.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: That is helpful.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: With the indulgence of the Chairman, I would like to mention two issues in respect of which I would like the HSE to be put on notice.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: The first is disability funding. There is a real problem when Governments and Government Deputies make pronouncements in good faith. For example, it was announced that there would be a reduction to service providers of 1.2% in 2013. Service providers up and down the country have told us that they took a reduction of approximately 2%. The precise figure they mention tends to vary. In the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: Please do

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: That is important.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: The problems that arose in the case of the difference between a 1.2% cut and a 2% cut were encountered by the disability organisations and service providers in advance of the Haddington Road agreement. That brings me to my next difficulty. I will give an example of what is happening in many organisations around the country. I think I gave notice of my wish to discuss this case. A service...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: That brings us back to the previous discussion between the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform and Health about what the HSE could actually achieve under the Haddington Road agreement. The extra bit was divided across a range of sectors, in the first instance, before it was decided that it should be taken centrally.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: I will direct my final point at Mr. O'Brien in the first instance. The HSE has carried out an extensive audit of another disability services provider in my constituency, St. Catherine's Association. This matter has appeared on the front page of a national newspaper on at least two occasions. I am concerned about a couple of aspects of the issue. The HSE seems to have carried out a very...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: Discretion being a somewhat subjective concept in and of itself, if more than 100 different people are applying it.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: Okay, it is useful to have that stated. Mr. O'Brien, as the director general of the HSE with Mr. Burke the head of the medical card section, is saying that discretion is being applied on a consistent and uniform basis, regardless of postal address. The criteria and same level of checks and balances apply whereas in the past that was not necessarily the case.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: Thank you. I wish to raise the issue of deceased medical card holders. I looked recently at the figures in relation to this issue and I was concerned to see a level, although lower than in the past, whereby the medical cards of the deceased were continuing to run up costs for the taxpayer. Mr. Burke supplied the figures. Of the 17,059 medical cards, 2,361 belonged to deceased people. As...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: That is very helpful. That figures of 2,361, if funds were paid out, they have been recouped.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: That makes sense. I am concerned that much of the discussion on probity - this word that has now entered the lexicon - the probity focus has been on medical cards being taken from people who currently hold them. From what I have read and heard from the HSE and the Department of Health, there must be concern about over-payments made to GPs, pharmacists and other. I have heard the Minister...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: I have a final question on the issue of medical cards before I raise a few other points. There seems to be a very high level of "non response" when the HSE writes to an individual seeking information. The Comptroller and Auditor General has referred to it in his report and it has been alluded to in the figures presented to us today. Am I correct in saying that a cohort of people who...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: Thank you Chairman. I thank Mr. O'Brien, Dr. Mc Loughlin and their teams for their patience during what was quite a lengthy suspension. We will now switch our attention from bailout exits to medical cards. The conversation we have had so far this morning has been helpful and constructive. The figures Mr. Burke provided on the review of discretionary medical cards and how that breaks down,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (14 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: I thank Mr. Hennessy for that helpful response. I wish to focus on the question of consistency because this committee is not so much concerned with policy but with the implementation of that policy in a correct manner. Therefore the expenditure of taxpayers funds is correct. Every member of the delegation who has spoken today has alluded to an inconsistency or a previous inconsistency in...