Results 1,801-1,820 of 24,567 for speaker:Róisín Shortall

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: Clearly the Minister does not want to answer the question.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: It is up to the Minister to justify his actions and he is clearly refusing to do that.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: What about people earning the minimum wage? What is their percentage?

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: I note the Minister did not answer my question. I asked him to explain to us the rationale for giving tax breaks to, for example, people in this House. Does he think it is fair and why did he do that? I am still waiting to hear his answer to that question. The Minister talks about the SWITCH model, which looked at the impact of the budget across the board in various measures within it....

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: The Minister has not answered my question yet. I asked why anybody in this House should get money back from the tax system and why there should be cash energy payments. Maybe the Minister will answer that question after my third time asking. Competitiveness is impacted. The top three issues, according to IBEC, are a lack of affordable housing, childcare and healthcare. Those are the...

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: I move amendment No. 7: In page 15, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “Report on third rate of income tax 10.The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, produce a report on the potential for the introduction of a 43 per cent income tax rate on all individuals with incomes in excess of €100,000, with appropriate uplifts for married...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Winter Preparedness in the Hospital System: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: My recollection is that we were told that, in recent years, on two occasions it went into the following year's base.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Winter Preparedness in the Hospital System: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: There is potential for the Government to ease the pressures next year by taking the decision that the Supplementary Estimate will go into the base. Is that right?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Winter Preparedness in the Hospital System: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: Does Mr. Gloster have any idea when that decision is likely to be taken, if the Government is minded to put it into the base?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Winter Preparedness in the Hospital System: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: Does anyone else who has experience of this in recent years have an idea?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Winter Preparedness in the Hospital System: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: Okay. I accept that is a question for the Government. When Mr. Gloster decided not to continue with the practice of drawing up winter plans, he produced the urgent emergency care plan. It is an impressive plan. It includes key performance indicators, KPIs. Is the HSE reporting on performance? I could not find any performance reports.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Winter Preparedness in the Hospital System: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: What is the reason for the delay? The document is from July and it contains information about KPIs and daily and monthly reports, but none of those have been published yet. Is that the case?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Winter Preparedness in the Hospital System: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: When will that information be released?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Winter Preparedness in the Hospital System: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: When will that be published?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Winter Preparedness in the Hospital System: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: To go back to the question of the recruitment pause, from the way Mr. Gloster described it, I understand that the recruitment of anyone who has accepted an offer of a job in writing will proceed but the recruitment of others will not. That is random, is it not? Did Mr. Gloster take that approach for contractual reasons? It does not seem to make sense. Theoretically, there could be a high...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Winter Preparedness in the Hospital System: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: I wish to talk about delayed discharges and what is happening in the home care area. Mr. Gloster spoke earlier about what is happening with regard to the HSE’s directly employed home care staff. However, we know that in many areas, particularly in the Dublin area, the staffing is all privatised. Earlier in the year, in the service plan, there was an allocation of 23.9 million hours....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Winter Preparedness in the Hospital System: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: The HSE lost 1.9 million hours in relation to the privatised services. We are told that will not increase next year. Mr. Gloster spent some time telling us about how the demand for home care has grown substantially. How on earth can the reduction make any sense when the demand is growing? There is a knock-on impact on delayed discharges obviously but there is also a knock-on impact on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Winter Preparedness in the Hospital System: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: The reason the HSE was not reaching the target was because the pay and conditions were so poor. The pay and conditions were improved but it is older people who are paying the price for that because the overall hours were cut.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Winter Preparedness in the Hospital System: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Róisín Shortall: Okay, but there is a complete disconnect here. The demand is growing rapidly and the supply is reducing. Has this been taken up as a distinct issue with the Department?