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Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (23 Mar 2022)

Bernard Durkan: What the Chair has said is not without foundation. We have all dealt with situations similar in nature to those that have been described. There are two sides to it. A prima facie case should be established so that people cannot unilaterally decide to blacken somebody's name or reputation. We need to be careful about this. However, there are situations that come to our attention as...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (23 Mar 2022)

Bernard Durkan: I wish to be associated with other speakers on the Bill. The important things for a complainant are that there is a conclusion and outcome, that the complaint is investigated and that whether it is right or wrong is clarified in the course of it. The wall of silence is not acceptable. It is an old-fashioned idea that if you avoid it long enough, it will go away by itself. A wrong does not...

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

Bernard Durkan: I welcome our guests and thank them for their useful information. A few questions come to mind. Reference was made to 750 graduates being available annually. It is 750 because 75 was mentioned as well and I presume that was a mistake. I assume we are talking about 750. With regard to emigration, I am aware that people at various levels in the health service will emigrate for experience...

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

Bernard Durkan: We do not have any figures for the US, Canada or London at present.

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

Bernard Durkan: Dr. Humphries is back. I was missing the sound. Sound is a help in this business.

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

Bernard Durkan: It is alarming that 55% or thereabouts go to Australia. If other locations are included, that figure must increase to an alarmingly high level. I cannot understand how we can keep our health services going with that level of emigration. We need to find out, if we can, exact and precise numbers in respect of emigration. We must ask ourselves whether we can continue like this. I know that...

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

Bernard Durkan: If pay is not an issue, that reinforces my earlier point that work-life conditions and so on are a determining factor at home. That will lead more and more qualified doctors to emigrate, which in turn will create a further problem at home. It will multiply annually. The problem will only get worse. We need to look at ways and means of identifying how to break the cycle because, if we do...

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

Bernard Durkan: Can the witnesses give me a picture of the agency costs? We know about this. We have been through it many times before. We need to identify the extra costs involved in providing doctors, nursing staff and general hospital staff through agencies. Why should this be? Why do hospitals rely on agency staff? The staff must be there. Why not make them permanent staff of the hospitals? They...

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

Bernard Durkan: I understand. My last question is simple. If the witnesses were to select two measures that might address the problems we face in the health services at the present time, what would they be?

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

Bernard Durkan: They are. Does anybody else wish to answer?

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

Bernard Durkan: I want to ask our witnesses if they might like to share with us their own concerns and opinions in regard to overcrowding in accident and emergency, A&E, units throughout the country. Some A&Es seem to cope with it well, others not so well. I wish to ask the same in regard to long waiting lists. Apart from the staff there must be a link somewhere, for example looking at the private...

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

Bernard Durkan: If I might put the focus back on the patient again. If you have a crowded A&E anywhere in the country that is crowded in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening, and sometimes has to restart again the following day or overnight, very often overnight, public confidence in the system is not helped by that and it is therefore important to identify the precise reasons. The numbers...

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

Bernard Durkan: Unless we get to the bottom of the particular issues of patient confidence and dealing with people on waiting lists for long periods of time, and do something about it very quickly, we will reach a situation where the level of anger from these patients is going to increase and the level of care is going to decrease because of the gap that exists in the system. For whatever reason, there are...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Bernard Durkan: I am sorry Deputy-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Bernard Durkan: The Deputy has had his say within Standing Orders. He must not interrupt.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Bernard Durkan: The Minister is to continue, uninterrupted.

Rising Energy Costs: Motion [Private Members] (22 Mar 2022)

Bernard Durkan: In accordance with Standing Order 80(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time on Wednesday, 23 March 2022.

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (22 Mar 2022)

Bernard Durkan: 261. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason an annuity pension in the case of a person (details supplied) appears to be taxed at a higher rate; if a review will be undertaken to ensure that they are paying the correct rate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14536/22]