Results 8,861-8,880 of 12,424 for speaker:Louise O'Reilly

Written Answers — Department of Health: Respite Care Services Data (25 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: 232. To ask the Minister for Health the number of respite care hours provided for the first half of 2017 compared to the first half of 2018 by CHO and LHO in tabular form. [44285/18]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Home Care Packages Data (25 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: 233. To ask the Minister for Health the number of older persons waiting for home support packages; and the waiting lists for homecare packages by CHO and LHO in tabular form. [44286/18]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Home Care Packages Data (25 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: 234. To ask the Minister for Health the number of home support packages provided for the first half of 2017 compared to the number provided in the first half of 2018 by CHO and LHO in tabular form. [44287/18]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (Section 95(3)) (Variation of Title: Physical Therapist) Regulations 2018: Motion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: I will be brief. I thank Ms Walsh for the presentation and for giving time to this. Obviously, it was a contentious issue. I am happy that the time was given, the parties engaged and then a solution was found. I believe that solution will benefit the public and will ensure that the titles are protected. That is what everyone wanted out of it and I wish to put on record my thanks for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: There is a section in the presentation on efficiencies, for which the estimate is €346 million. From where did that figure come? How was it calculated? How much of it has been achieved? Specifically, what components make up that figure? Did it arise from discussions with the people who presumably should deliver the efficiencies? In budget 2019 we note that current health...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: I used the word "volatile" about tax receipts but I am not the only one who has used it. I am asking for a comment as to whether it is prudent to include once-off payments that will not be available next year. I do not think it is a prudent way to fund the health service and I ask for a comment on that. I understand how it works. I am interested in Mr. Desmond's view as to its prudence.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: That figure is €60 million?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: Out of €346 million?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: The HSE is short? Come on. If Mr. Mulvany was in Tesco and €346 million was the bill and he said he had €60 million, they would say he is more than short. Where did that figure come from? The HSE must have estimated that those savings could be made. It must have looked at an area where current spending could be cut. I know the health service well and I know how hard...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: It falls far short.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: I am sorry to labour the point, but the figure of €346 million was identified. I fully take Mr. Mulvany's point that it is not the same as running a coffee shop, but when the HSE is asked to make savings, it surely has to be realistic. If the figure was €350 million, we might say it was someone rounding up or whatever else, but with such a specific figure, I would have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: Am I correct in saying that as yet there is no funded workforce plan for 2018?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: I want to know if there is such a plan. Perhaps it is a case of rainbows and unicorns, but I would have thought the HSE would have had a funded workforce plan for 2018 in, say, December 2017, yet we are now almost in November 2018. As I understand it, there were discussions with trade unions on a funded workforce plan. Again, I am only observing this and obviously not involved, but the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: I will try to be brief. Reference was made to the period Professor Brendan Drumm was in charge of the health service and whether there may have been overruns at that time. If my memory serves me correctly, that period coincided with the imposition of the moratorium on recruitment, and by the way I am not defending Professor Drumm's record. Would that have been around the same time?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: It was trying to get that clear in my head. I referenced earlier the general funded workforce plan. When I briefly stepped out of the meeting, I checked the specific one for nurses and midwives. It has been brought twice to the Workplace Relations Commission and now it is going to the Labour Court. I emphasise it is the funded workforce plan for 2018 and it is now almost November. We all...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: I am aware of that. I am not talking about the actual charge. I am talking about stretch income targets, the target versus the figure. There is a difference. Mr. Mulvany knows that. There is a difference between collecting all the money which HSE is obliged to do, and that is separate, but setting a target for the amount of money causes a problem with regard to how the HSE is going to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: It is not the income targets, it is the stretch target. There are the targets and then there is the imposition of stretch income targets. That goes beyond the simple practice that if a hospital has a private patient, it levies that private patient, which of course it does. That gives rise to what happens if there are two patients in an accident and emergency department and only one bed is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: That is compounded by setting targets.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: It is.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion (24 Oct 2018)

Louise O'Reilly: This is a stretch target. This is what the HSE has been told it has to collect and, on top of that, an additional target.