Results 45,141-45,160 of 46,267 for speaker:Simon Harris

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: No, I mean what was the total amount spent by the HSE on overtime for nurses in 2011? Am I right in saying that figure is a cumulative one for the whole organisation?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: I am just wondering if there is a breakdown for the figure of €169,857. How much of that is accounted for by nurses or consultants?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: We need a bit more detail before we can form a viewpoint on some of these. I wish to have a quick look at some of the allowances. I understand that the living-out allowance for registrars, house officers and interns is paid to non-consultant doctors who are rotating between hospitals to help them secure temporary accommodation which is not available on the hospital site. In Mr. O'Brien's...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: Does the HSE hope to review the rate of this allowance?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: I will now move to allowance No. 23, which is the community allowance. To set this in context, this allowance is to compensate mental health nurses for loss of earnings when moved from a hospital to a community setting. Payment ranges from €4,962 to €5,722 per annum and the allowance cost about €3.4 million in 2011. I have a question arising from anecdotal experience....

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: That is very good news. The idea of paying people because they do not have to work nights or at weekends was a bit bizarre. The GP training allowance is an interesting one and there may well be very good reasons for it. I want to get an understanding of the rationale behind it.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: The GP training allowance is payable at a rate of €11,430. It is paid to GPs and registrars in an approved scheme in lieu of 120 hours worked outside normal working hours. Considering our GPs go on to establish what one would hope to be profitable practices, is this ever paid back by GPs? Will Mr. O'Brien explain the rationale and why the HSE is subsidising GP training?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: I take Ms Buckley's point. At this committee, we have already discussed the many allowances submitted that most people acknowledge are core pay. It would have been helpful to have submitted the full breadth of allowances, as other Departments have done, and I am unsure why they have been excluded. It seems at odds with how other Departments have interpreted the review. It is possibly...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: I do.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: I accept that point and no one wants to risk patient safety. At the same time, our remit is to try to get as great an overview of all payments beyond core pay and to delve into a discussion of whether certain allowances should be core pay. We have had good discussions on that. Who receives on-call payments?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: Do consultants receive them?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: Does Mr. O'Brien have figures for the cost of on-call payments in the HSE in 2011?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: That would be very useful. It would be particularly useful if we could have the figures broken down by grade in terms of how much is paid for nurses on-call and consultants. Much of our discussion at the many committee meetings Ms Buckley has attended concern where allowances are going. In many areas, the allowances go to relatively low paid employees. One may have a concern about the...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: Perhaps Mr. O'Brien can go through 20 of the 41 allowances for which no business case was submitted. The table supplied by Mr. O'Brien has been colour-coded, with red for allowances abolished for new beneficiaries, orange for allowances approved for new beneficiaries subject to further review, and green referring to allowances approved for new beneficiaries. The green and the orange...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: We are drowning in tables.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: Are the allowances the HSE wishes to abolish for new beneficiaries those from No. 17 to No. 37?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: The table is a little confusing. Can the witnesses clarify the level of overtime costs in HSE? How much is the average overtime bill? How much was the overtime bill in 2011?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: We have discussed absenteeism at the HSE on a number of occasions. How much of the overtime bill of €169,857 relates to medical demand?

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive - Review of Allowances (8 Nov 2012)

Simon Harris: I welcome Mr. O'Brien, his officials and Ms Buckley. I thank them for attending what is probably the last day of our analysis of the various public sector allowances across the Departments and agencies. There were two striking items in Mr. O'Brien's opening statement. He stated: "Due to the challenges posed by the legacy payroll systems predating the HSE, it has been difficult to quantify...