Results 21-40 of 2,965 for speaker:Robert Dowds

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Robert Dowds: Obviously, a whistleblower came from within the organisation. When did he or she approach the HSE with concerns about Grace and perhaps Ann as well?

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Robert Dowds: How long a period?

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Robert Dowds: Was that from within the HSE?

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Robert Dowds: When Mr. Healy says they were the first, does he mean they were from WIDA-----

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Robert Dowds: Regarding the cases of Grace and Ann, there were three whistleblowers, or people who provided protected disclosures.

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Robert Dowds: There is something I find very difficult about this. Probably unlike anyone else in this room, I have actually taught non-verbal children, and the non-verbal children whom I taught did not have intellectual disabilities but they were still incredibly vulnerable because they could not speak. I am absolutely hit in the stomach by the fact that a really vulnerable woman was left in that sort...

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Robert Dowds: That is not the impression I got.

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Robert Dowds: It strikes me that this has a wider implication. It seems to me that for whatever reason, there was real fear in the case of these whistleblowers that there would be very negative consequences. That leads me to consider that if that kind of atmosphere is widespread in the HSE, it is a discouragement to staff who do a good job and want to do a good job - and I am sure the vast majority of...

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Robert Dowds: Does Mr. O'Brien agree the whistleblowers in this case seem to be patriots in the best sense of that word and in a way we often do not use it in Ireland, which is to mean standing up for what is best in one's community? In the early 1990s, whistleblowers seem to have made their mark, but it just was not fully carried through. It would have saved this State huge amounts of money if people...

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Robert Dowds: Does the figure Mr. O'Brien gave include legal costs?

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Robert Dowds: There is another cost in terms of the huge amount of officials' time that has been spent on this. It would be far better for the efforts of the HSE to be directed more towards what its function should be, which is looking after people's health in the broadest sense of that word. It is a great pity. Before concluding, I take this opportunity, particularly as I am not seeking re-election,...

Public Accounts Committee: HSE Report on Foster Home in Waterford Community Care Area: Discussion (2 Feb 2016)

Robert Dowds: I think the Chairman knows the answer to that.

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Revenue Commissioners Reports (2 Feb 2016)

Robert Dowds: 178. To ask the Minister for Finance the next steps he will be taking to fill the data gaps identified in the recent spillover analysis of Irish tax policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4268/16]

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (28 Jan 2016)

Robert Dowds: On a different issue-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (28 Jan 2016)

Robert Dowds: On this issue, I very much appreciate the work Deputy Deasy and the Chairman have done on this. As someone who worked with children with disability, albeit physical as opposed to intellectual disability, I realise how vulnerable those people are, especially when one is dealing with people who are non-verbal. It is very hard for them. They cannot speak up for themselves, literally. One of...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (28 Jan 2016)

Robert Dowds: This is worse than Áras Attracta.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (28 Jan 2016)

Robert Dowds: It is on a different issue.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (28 Jan 2016)

Robert Dowds: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (28 Jan 2016)

Robert Dowds: It relates to some of what we were discussing last week.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (28 Jan 2016)

Robert Dowds: The other issue that was discussed last week was the matter surrounding Meath County Council and the apparent giving of a contract to an unregistered company. There were also other allegations about cutting down over 200,000 trees. I know from what was said last week that part of the reason for raising that was to try to put it on the agenda for the next Committee of Public Accounts, but...