Results 4,541-4,560 of 6,541 for speaker:Ruairí Ó Murchú

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Home Care: Discussion (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: On the issue of contracts more widely, are there variations across the CHOs with regard to how much providers get paid and what they can pay their employees?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Home Care: Discussion (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: This is like an awful lot of other sectors, such as the childcare sector, which was mentioned earlier, in which we are not giving people the respect and pay they need. That is why we are not able to retain people. It is as simple as that. Obviously, the contracts are not fit to do the business we need to have done. We all welcome the fact this work advisory task force is now in place, but...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Home Care: Discussion (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: There is also the issue that was spoken about earlier, which is that you do not necessarily have guaranteed hours if someone is hospitalised, which happens from time to time, sometimes as a result of an insufficient amount of care.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Home Care: Discussion (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I believe that is accepted. We have had a number of reports on the difficulties we have and on how we are not addressing elder care as we need to. We need to facilitate people who want to stay in their own homes. If it is possible, I will ask Mr. Musgrave to come in on the wider issue of the contracts required. I accept he is representing private care operators, which obviously intend to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Home Care: Discussion (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I will finish up. It is vital there is follow-up, particularly with regard to the work advisory task force. We need to put in place a system that is fit for purpose.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Home Care: Discussion (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I thank the witnesses for coming. This is a follow-up from the previous meeting this morning. We are in the middle of a recruitment crisis and there are families who cannot get the carers they want. On some level I also accept these people probably do not care where the service comes from, whether it is the private or public sector, once their loved one can stay at home. I agree with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Home Care: Discussion (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: People are surviving with sickness.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Home Care: Discussion (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I suppose there are multiple issues. We are reliant on these private sector operators that have built in their profit. HCCI indicated earlier this was between 5% and 10% for companies, on average. They would state there would be a difficulty with the tendering process. If they build in their profit, the State is probably trying to get this on the cheap. Workers will make a determination...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Home Care: Discussion (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: There is probably an opportunity in that respect at this point. If the workforce advisory group is serious, it should get down to dealing with those specific matters, although there is a need for short-term fixes.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I follow on from some of the questions about NBI. There was a considerable amount of conversation around the investors. Peter Hendrick has told us that on some level, the investor profile he has is not the investor profile he wants. He spoke about two things. One of them was how at some stage, NBI would become some sort of European super-telecoms outfit - I am not entirely sure how....

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: The Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, stated the project is viable and nobody is particularly worried. I know there were certain fears around performance bonds being paid early and people thought it was a possible cash flow issue but I accept the argument that this was not the case. Has there been any further communication relating to any possible future investors? Perhaps we are not...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: That is okay. I appreciate that. We spoke previously about another story that had broken about the encroachment numbers, which came to 45,000. I think other numbers have been quoted. The Minister always disputed that. Do we have a figure? This involved the crossover between Eir and NBI in the intervention area.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: It is acceptable to me.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: That is an answer. Nobody is happy that this has not reached the deadlines. There is an acceptance regarding the Covid delays. I will ask a couple of questions rather than have a couple of pieces of paper cross over. Are we fairly sure 60,000 premises will be reached by the end of March? Do we have what will be the new figure for the end of this year? I know it was somewhere between...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Once we can keep close to the target. Everyone can allow for an element of slippage. Unfortunately, there has probably been too much in the past while. Are we still talking about June for the hardening up or the contractual information on the acceleration and catch-up?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: In fairness, NBI had two asks, one involving what it calls the self-install product and the other involving Eir make-ready works that allow NBI to attack more, for want of a better term. NBI has the capacity to finish the last piece rather than calling Eir in, even though there has been a slight improvement.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I get that. I imagine the Department is engaging on all this work at this point.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: The other issue, which I believe I raised with the Minister before and which I definitely raised with others, concerns the mobile phone and broadband task force, which falls between the Departments of the Environment, Climate and Communications and Rural and Community Development. Despite the best of intentions, several areas will not see broadband rolled out for some years. There may be...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (9 Feb 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: We are all in agreement on that. In some cases, there are plenty of people who will have the capacity and ability and who will do the due diligence work and research. What we are talking about is just engaging with those stakeholders that might provide interim solutions for those who will be waiting several years. Could the mobile phone and broadband task force be the body that could do...