Results 1,561-1,580 of 74,100 for speaker:Bernard Durkan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I welcome our guests and thank them for the information. I do not want to go over the earlier session but it is important to recognise that we all need to get to a place where we can rely on the system, and a system that works. It is about patients' health and the health of the community. The committee has been told at these meetings that Ireland has one of the most expensive health...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: Thank you very much.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: Just a second. We did not have austerity. We had cutbacks, which were necessitated by the financial system that prevailed in this country at the time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: It is being addressed in the national development plan. It has been announced, has been put into the public arena and is now an objective.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: There are several hospital projects that are earmarked for progress in the near future and are part of the national development plan.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: We will have to disagree because as a former Opposition health spokesperson, I can tell Ms Hetherington that I met with all the authorities in the system at the time that told me emphatically that we had too many beds. It became an objective. We had to close down 5,000 beds.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: They were closed down and nobody came forward to say "listen, you need information now; and we have information for you that will show you that we cannot afford to lose 5,000 beds."

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: Sometimes we make promises that cannot be kept but some of us try to make promises that can be kept and we try to adhere to that as a principle. The sooner we recognise that, the better for everybody concerned be it with regard to education, health or any other branch of the service. We appreciate public service. The last point I want to make is a quick one. I do not usually do this....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I always support what is required.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I am not going to be drawn on the last reference to austerity because austerity is when there are options available, whereas necessity is when there are cuts that must be enforced and inflicted on everybody. All sectors of society had to be impacted, including education, health and the public service in general. The private sector also had to face cuts that were not welcomed by any means,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: What is the level of overall shortage in this area now compared to what it was before the beginning of this year?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: What are the probabilities of meeting that objective within a reasonable time whereby that we do not carry that into next year?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: That is quite true and this is where I made the reference to the national development plan and the number of health facilities that are in line for major augmentation in the foreseeable future. This is part and parcel of it, and new hospitals in several areas, and should be. We all have to plan ahead. The demand today may be different in five years' time. We must also recognise that, as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I do not want to drag this on, Chair, but I can only say that when the IMF came in, it did not care where the cuts took place, it just said there would be cuts. Ms Clyne already said that it would do damage for generations but the IMF does not care. When cuts have to take place, they take place and the IMF does not discriminate between those who deserve cuts and those who do not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: We have more money than we had then, and for a whole variety of reasons, because of the sacrifices that we made - that people made, including the witnesses and everybody else – at that particular time, otherwise we would not have money now. That point should not be lost on anybody.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: This is my last question, Chairman. Are the witnesses suggesting that we should not have had to have the cuts imposed by the IMF?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I will conclude on this point. All I can say is that if we select one group in society to be treated differently to everybody else, the other groups in society, even though they may not be as fundamental to society, will resent them straight away. Unfortunately, we cannot do that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Employment of Consultants and Non-consultant Hospital Doctors in Public Hospitals: Irish Medical Organisation (22 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: It is not fortunate for me.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Inflation Rate (21 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: On the same lines, I ask the Minister the extent to which his Department remains vigilant in relation to the actual causes of the inflation affecting a large range of consumer goods. In themselves they do not seem greatly worrying but put together they constitute a fairly sizable impact insofar as the purchaser, the consumer, is concerned and they gradually eat away into the confidence of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Inflation Rate (21 May 2024)

Bernard Durkan: In regard to fuel prices and possible reductions in the international markets, how is it determined that those reductions or increases can be transferred to the consumer, to benefit the consumer? From past experience we know that when increases are on the horizon, they are passed on quickly to the consumer and have a dramatic effect. While almost all consumer goods now are transported in...