Results 11,781-11,800 of 20,418 for speaker:Brian Stanley

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: The minutes reflect many of the issues that have been raised in this Chamber.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: In the normal course of events it would wait for the correspondence to come before the committee. I am aware of that. I was contacted in regard to it and I suggested that the correspondence come to the meeting here. Deputy Murphy has come as well, and that is fair enough. However, in fairness we should wait until it comes before the committee. It will be before us next Thursday.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: We will send a letter to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform asking it to comment on the ongoing matters in regard to this issue.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: I thank Deputy Murphy for that. Next week, on 10 February we will examine the expenditure on the national broadband plan with National Broadband Ireland, NBI, and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. Please note, as previously agreed we will engage with NBI, and this is the part members need to watch, from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and with the Department from 1.30...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: The provision of domestic violence refuges. There are nine counties, of which I think Cavan and Monaghan are two, as well as Laois and Offaly. There are a number of counties. So I ask that that be included in those engagements.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: Yes. You have me. I will come back to that later and work that out. There is a solution to it in terms of the double header that day. It should be satisfactory.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: We will have to agree a way of dealing with that. Whatever the committee agrees to, that is what it will be at the end of the day. Normally it is 15 minutes. If we are taking them as two separate bodies then there is the option of dealing with the same rotation and counting them as being two meetings, or the option of one.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: Two separate meetings. We will come back to that. Next week we have that, 10 February. The timeline is 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and the afternoon session with the Department. The agenda for the engagement with the Department is the 2020 appropriation accounts and from the Comptroller and Auditor General is the 2020 report on the Accounts of Public Services, Chapter 3 on the central...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: I thank the Deputy for that suggestion. With the agreement of committee members, we will ask that representatives be invited from the HSE and, presumably, from the Department for a session to discuss our mental health services. We will have to try to work out the schedule, because there can be problems with what we have planned when it turns out that people cannot attend. Perhaps a slot...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: I call Deputy McAuliffe.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: I call Deputy Carthy.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: I think there is agreement. I call Deputy Munster.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: I understand that funding for mental health services constitutes 6% of the overall health budget. In accordance with international best practice, that should be increasing to 11% or 12%. I just note that. I will go through the schedule and we may have an opportunity to slot in this proposed session. We have meetings arranged already and people-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: If the Deputy will allow me, I will run through what is scheduled already. That is the best thing to do, and may be helpful. Several difficulties arise when trying to schedule meetings. As we have seen over the last year and a half, we can have difficulty scheduling meetings with representatives from organisations because of availability, diary conflicts or the time needed to prepare. It...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: We could schedule it for a full session on 10 March. To get a proper hearing, we will have to have the witnesses before us in the morning also. If it is an important issue for us - I think that is accepted - we do not want it to be pushed onto the tail end of the day. That would not do it justice, for want of a better term. I suggest we try to slot in the meeting for 10 March and push...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: It creates difficulties for administration.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: It does create problems, although I will not get into that now. It is not open to the clerk to the committee to contribute right now but dealing with two issues in one day would create difficulties and I am conscious of that. We need to be realistic about what we can cover. The preparation for a meeting in any given week is considerable, as members will know from the work they put into...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: I would suggest that is not a bad option but I want to allow the secretariat to comment and I cannot do that in public session. Provisionally, there is a suggestion we go with that. It is widely recognised that what the Deputy has proposed is worthy and needs to be dealt with as an urgent issue. I ask her to bear with us until we deal with the rest of the meetings. I think she will be...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: I ask members to be helpful on this. I will return to it soon, given it will not take very long if we allow it to happen. There was a suggestion that we would have two meetings but that would add a further complication. I ask members to bear with me while we nail this down conclusively. I qualify this by saying that, if we decide to take 10 March as the meeting on mental health and if we...

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service: Motion [Private Members] (1 Feb 2022)

Brian Stanley: The motion calls on the Government and the HSE to address the crisis in mental health and disability services for young people and children. We know this is a growing problem, unfortunately. The services have been at breaking point for too long and patients simply are not getting the timely and quality care and intervention that they need and deserve. Last week, the issues in south...