Results 1-20 of 26,887 for speaker:David Cullinane
- Written Answers — Department of Health: National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: 348. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 1495 of 10 June 2025, the breakdown of weekly and weekend activity, by ordinary rostered hours compared to extra-contractual hours funded via NTPF or other insourcing funding streams, in tabular form. [36726/25]
- Written Answers — Department of Health: National Treatment Purchase Fund (3 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: 349. To ask the Minister for Health the breakdown of all acute hospital-related NTPF spending for the period 2020 to ##2025, inclusive, by spending type by hospital, and by year, in tabular form. [36731/25]
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: I wish to touch first on the CHI report because this was the first this committee heard of extremely serious issues regarding funding for the NTPF. In fact, it has led to this session where we can now discuss this report the HSE has done, which is a much deeper dive into insourcing and outsourcing. CHI says the HSE had sight of that report in March 2022. Is this the case?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: Given the seriousness of what was in that report, is it Mr. Gloster's contention that the HSE should have been made aware of the existence of the report?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: Okay. I will come to some of the issues. Is it also fair to say as well that in this report Mr. Gloster has submitted to the Minister and which was published yesterday, he was very clear that we now have an unsustainable reliance on what is called "insourcing"?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: Mr. Gloster has said it is an overdependency.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: It was about €90 million over those 27 months.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: How many third-party companies have been identified as having been involved in that €90 million of spending?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: I just need the number.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: There were 950 companies.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: How many of them are very large?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: Taking those top 50 companies - because we want to get to conflicts of interest and, potentially, perverse incentives, which have been talked about recently too - are there current and former members of the HSE who are now directors of those companies?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: Okay. I want to get to risks because these are also discussed concerning insourcing. Obviously, in relation to managing waiting lists, we have core HSE activity, which Mr. Gloster referred to, and obviously overtime, and then this third wheel of insourcing. We want to get to a seven-days-a-week health service and get more productivity. This is linked to productivity across the health...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: It is not just a risk. I am talking about a perverse incentive here, which is more problematic. I refer to the existence of these companies. We know current and former HSE employees are directors of these companies. We are a small country, and it is the same consultants, by and large, doing the work. In my view, given the existence of this insourcing, there is a perverse incentive in...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: Exactly. It is an impediment to getting to that five over seven days, which is what we want.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: Is Mr. Gloster adamant this can be ended by June 2026?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: I accept that. I am talking about the amount of money the companies received from the HSE.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: Okay, that is the information I am looking for. There is a related issue here that troubles me. I am looking at spending on agencies. For me, we have the same level of dependency in this regard and these issues are very much linked. In 2019, the spending on agencies was €349 million. What was the spending in this regard in 2024?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: It was €734 million. Do we have any idea how many companies operate in that space?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Management of Hospital Waiting Lists and Insourcing and Outsourcing of Treatment: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)
David Cullinane: How many companies are we talking about?