Results 5,361-5,380 of 11,187 for speaker:Colm Burke

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Does Dr. Byrne not accept that 33 contractors for the entire country is very small number in real terms if the SEAI really wants to make an impact on this scheme? It should be remembered that it has a great deal of additional money in its budget for this year. If it only has 33 contractors for the entire country, does Dr. Byrne not accept that is too low a number to get delivery of the...

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Dr. Byrne mentions the output from the current contractors. All building contractors will say they have challenges recruiting employees. One may even run into difficulties with the existing 33 contractors as regards delivery. When it comes to getting new contractors into the scheme, what time target does the SEAI have?

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: A number of the people I have been talking to in the building industry over the past two weeks have made the point that a lot of people have walked away from contracts for building work. They have decided not go ahead with their house extensions or renovations. I spoke to one builder who lost three building contracts in one week and they were contracts for new houses. We may well have a...

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: I have dealt with a lot of building contractors over the years and they have often mentioned the timescale for getting paid, especially in public service contracts. It is a big complaint that I constantly receive. What is the average time from when a contract is finished to the contractor getting paid?

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Why does it take 12 weeks? Normally, when a bill is sent out it must be paid within 30 days. A period of 12 weeks is equal to three months or 90 days. If we want to get people into this scheme to deliver on projects then surely we will have to deliver payment. I presume the contractors would provide materials at a cost and materials are extremely costly. Therefore, should the SEAI not...

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: I raise this issue because I hear that quite a number of contractors have walked away from doing work for local authorities because they are finding huge delays in payment, that no one will talk to them but that they have to pay the suppliers. Supplies are even more difficult to get so a lot of builders are having to pay up front for them, which puts even more pressure on them. That is why...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Going back 20 years, I know someone who worked as a junior doctor and who was on-call 136 hours one week and 76 hours the following week. They were on what we call a “one in two” call. They worked every day from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. and they were on call every second night and every second weekend. There has been a move away from that and there has been some change. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Can I go back to the issue of employment of junior doctors who are on six-month or 12-month contracts? Could we work towards a system? I remember doing a lot of work on this in 2012 or 2013, when I did a report on it. Could we go back to a situation whereby instead of being given a 12-month contract or a six-month contract, a doctor is given a three-year contract, for example, and is able...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Dr. Humphries is suggesting that we go into the issue by employing more consultants, but I hear big arguments from consultants. For instance, I spoke to a consultant who I think works in Galway or in the north west. She came back from the United States, where she had two days of operating time per week. Now she has a half day per week. She tries to get three operations done within her...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: It appears that when we were dealing with the pandemic, hospital doctors took over the management of hospitals, to a large extent. They did a very good job while they were in charge, but that seems to have gone back again. They now seem to have very little say in when they can get a space in theatre and when they can get access to beds. There seems to be a huge clawback on the progress...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Is it not the case that there was positive feedback from the doctors because they were in charge, rather than someone else dictating the terms?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Does Dr. Humphries believe we can do a lot more to get administration and management to work in a far more co-ordinated way to assist doctors? The standard answer seems to be, "I'll come back to you next week about that issue you've raised". Next week goes to next month, and next month goes to next year. That is one of the complaints.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: I think we now have over 6,000 NCHDs within the hospital system. What number of those are on training schemes and what numbers are not on any training scheme? Have we any breakdown of that number?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: There are over 2,500 doctors who are moving every six months or every 12 months. That is a huge number. Finally, did the witnesses find in their research that junior doctors face more challenges while they working in smaller hospitals outside of the main centres of population, such as Galway, Limerick, Dublin and Cork?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: I thank Dr. Humphries for her presentation. The first question I want to deal with is recommendations going forward and looking at the long-term. How does she see this changing over the next ten years? Does she believe there is not an appetite for change in the system?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: I just wanted to ask about the doctors interviewed. Did the delegates not find that doctors working here believe they are doing a lot of work that really should not be under their remit, or that other staff in the hospital should be doing much of the work general doctors in Ireland do by comparison with those in other jurisdictions? As a result of their doing that work, we are overworking...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: The one example I have is of a student from the US who qualified as a doctor here. They worked in a smaller hospital initially and got great opportunities to work in theatre and everywhere else. They went to a bigger hospital for the second six months of their first year and found all they were doing was going for this or that, without getting access to many of the areas they wanted to deal...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: May I return to the issues of consultants in the hospitals outside the major centres of population? Many of them are on a rotation whereby they work every day from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. and are on call every third or fourth night and every third or fourth weekend. If you are on call at the weekend, you will have worked for the entire preceding week. You will be on call from 5 p.m. on Friday...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Would Dr. Byrne not agree that a system that requires one to work all week and then go on call from 5 o'clock on a Friday evening right through until 9 o'clock on a Monday morning is not a good one to have in place?