Results 9,881-9,900 of 35,567 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointments Status (3 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: 911. To ask the Minister for Health when a person (details supplied) will receive an appointment for St. Vincent’s Hospital; if they are on the routine or urgent waiting list; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6014/21]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Services (3 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: 912. To ask the Minister for Health the reason a person (details supplied) was released from Letterkenny University Hospital; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6015/21]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointments Status (3 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: 913. To ask the Minister for Health when a person (details supplied) in County Donegal can expect an appointment in Sligo University Hospital neurology department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6016/21]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry (3 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: 970. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of approved FLAG applications for 2020; when such applications will receive offers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6011/21]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry (3 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: 971. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the FLAG programme will open to new applications in 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6012/21]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: I welcome the Minister to the meeting. When was the Minister first made aware that an approach was to be made to Robert Watt to take up the position of interim Secretary General in the Department of Health?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: It was the first week in January. Before that, Robert Watt was not aware that he may be going to the Department of Health at that stage. The Secretary General of the Minister's Department was not aware that he could be moving to the Department of Health before that point in January. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: How did he know?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: Who would have informed Robert Watt of that possibility? Did the Minister talk to him about it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: How did he know? There were four people in the room discussing the issue, Martin Fraser, the Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy McGrath, and the Minister for Health. Which of those four relayed that to Robert Watt?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: He would have known, during this period where these documents were going back and forward, including the salary suggestion on 23 December, that he might be taking up the position as interim Secretary General or that it was at least a possibility.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: On 30 October, the Government looked at four options. One option was for a serving Secretary General to take up the role in a permanent capacity. The minutes indicate that option was dismissed and that five conditions would have to be met. It would have to be a single candidate. I presume Robert Watt is a suitable candidate since he has taken up the interim position. The second condition...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: The Minister talks about the challenges, which are outlined in the minutes, but we have a Secretary General from a senior Department who has moved over, although on an interim basis. The second option was, therefore, potentially available. Why did the Government not execute it in full? Why did the Taoiseach ask him to move on an interim basis when one option was to move on a full-time...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: The minutes reflected five issues relating to the second option, which was to ask an existing Secretary General to move. Four of those issues at least have been resolved in the interim. The question is why did the Minister not put the other one, namely, whether Mr. Watt was willing to move over on a permanent basis. This would have avoided increasing the salary. Why was that not teased out...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: It was about the payment for the equivalent role in Britain.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: I am.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: The Minister decided to increase the pay of the Secretary General of the Department of Health by €81,000. That is three times what a qualified public health nurse would get in the first year. The Minister said it was because of recruitment issues. Did the Minister benchmark it against anything, such as equivalents in Britain or France? He would have found that this is probably one...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: At the same time, in the same month the Government voted against student nurses, who are on the front line of the pandemic, being paid at all. I put it to the Minister that he is tone deaf to what is happening in society if he has no regrets over this decision and thinks it was appropriate or indeed fair that he signed off on this the very day level 5 restrictions-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: -----were introduced and people were losing their jobs again because of public health restrictions. The Minister felt there would be no issue with an €81,000 increase for one of the most highly-paid positions in the public service already. How can the Minister justify that? Did he even think about how this would look and feel to people on the front line?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Salary Increase for Position of Secretary General at the Department of Health: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2 Feb 2021)

Pearse Doherty: It is not just student nurses. I could give the Minister example after example. He mentioned that he received the independent report and he is engaging with the unions, and there is a process. There is always a process and it takes a period of time, and we will see what comes out of it. The problem is that, when it came to senior civil servants, just like the “super junior”...