Results 5,801-5,820 of 7,412 for speaker:Neasa Hourigan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Closure of Owenacurra Centre: Engagement with HSE (14 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: Is the HSE going to close that too?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Closure of Owenacurra Centre: Engagement with HSE (14 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: The HSE is not going to replace Owenacurra.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Closure of Owenacurra Centre: Engagement with HSE (14 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: The HSE is not going to replace Owenacurra.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Closure of Owenacurra Centre: Engagement with HSE (14 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: We could debate the insulation qualities or the possible retrofits on Roh-fab but we would probably bore everybody at this stage. I know I have only two minutes so I have a quick comment and question. It is incredibly frustrating when asking about 24-hour residential for the answer to speak about community mental health teams and people's placement in home care. Characterising A Vision for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Closure of Owenacurra Centre: Engagement with HSE (14 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: It certainly sounds like the witnesses are saying that. They have said there are zero plans for places in east Cork because we have community mental health teams, home care and weekend cover. That is the answer that has been repeated three or four times during this session.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Closure of Owenacurra Centre: Engagement with HSE (14 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: There is none in east Cork.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Closure of Owenacurra Centre: Engagement with HSE (14 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: Does the HSE have a funding commitment for that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Closure of Owenacurra Centre: Engagement with HSE (14 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: No. I am just asking about a parliamentary question while I have the witnesses before the committee. It relates to St. Stephen's Hospital and Owenacurra and the roll-out of vaccines in the past year. I ask Mr. Fitzgerald to send me that information.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Closure of Owenacurra Centre: Engagement with HSE (14 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: On the basis of a GDPR concern, the HSE would not send me the information. I assure Mr. Fitzgerald that I am not asking for personal information such as names or any other personal details. I am just asking for the timeline in respect of when people were vaccinated in the business park compared with the patients and staff of St. Stephen's.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Closure of Owenacurra Centre: Engagement with HSE (14 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I thank Mr. Fitzgerald.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Management of Social Welfare Appeals
Chapter 11 - Controls Over the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (9 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I welcome the witnesses and thank Mr. McKeon for attending even though he is not feeling well. I thank them also for the huge body of information they sent to the committee, which contains a large volume of data. My first question relates to the applications and appeals process for more complex applications, such as the disability allowance and the carer's allowance. I have to say, this...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Management of Social Welfare Appeals
Chapter 11 - Controls Over the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (9 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: That is fine. I believe from last year that it was somewhere in the region of 20,000 applications.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Management of Social Welfare Appeals
Chapter 11 - Controls Over the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (9 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I am sorry; I do not mean to cut Ms Gordon off. She is referring to appeals, however.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Management of Social Welfare Appeals
Chapter 11 - Controls Over the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (9 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I have the table of appeals in front of me. I am asking for the number of original applications and not the number of people who have appealed. I presume the figure for original applications is somewhere around that 20,000 figure. Is it correct that would that be the average for that kind of time period?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Management of Social Welfare Appeals
Chapter 11 - Controls Over the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (9 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: Exactly. I suppose this comes to the nub of the issue I want to ask about. I would be very appreciative if somebody could perhaps furnish me with that number afterwards. Let us work on the basis that it is vaguely similar year-on-year and we are dealing with a number that is in and around 20,000, and we have an appeals process, let us say, in the disability allowance of between 6,000 and...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Management of Social Welfare Appeals
Chapter 11 - Controls Over the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (9 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: Would it be fair to say that it is in the region of 50%, for example?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Management of Social Welfare Appeals
Chapter 11 - Controls Over the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (9 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: I realise that Ms Gordon is the appeals expert but in the first instance when somebody puts in his or her application, that goes to a staff member in the Department who is not an appeals officer. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Management of Social Welfare Appeals
Chapter 11 - Controls Over the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (9 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: Then that person might get a formal refusal and then come to Ms Gordon with an appeal.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Management of Social Welfare Appeals
Chapter 11 - Controls Over the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (9 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: Okay. Do we know as a percentage how many people are refused? Let us say, there are approximately 20,000 applications. If there is a 50% refusal rate, that is 10,000 people. Therefore, there is a shortfall of 3,000 people who do not appeal. Would it be fair to say that figure is in the ballpark?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Management of Social Welfare Appeals
Chapter 11 - Controls Over the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (9 Dec 2021)

Neasa Hourigan: Okay. I thank the Department very much for the case studies in the briefing it sent us. The case studies are very helpful but what stood out to me in many of the case studies was the simple fact that people did not supply the correct information or enough information. Would that be fair to say?