Results 1-20 of 1,039 for speaker:James Geoghegan

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: I do not know whether the Comptroller and Auditor General will have the answer to this at his fingertips. Over the lifetime of the Ireland Apple escrow fund, did it lose or gain money up to its dissolution? It is approximately €470 million.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: I thank all the witnesses for attending. Ms Fitzgerald mentioned her own experience of care with her parents and her in-laws. She did the same when appearing before the health committee, presumably to demonstrate she is a real person with empathy and a level of understanding. Would she be happy to have any of her loved ones in an Emeis Ireland-run nursing home right now?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: Therefore, Ms Fitzgerald would not put her loved ones in those two nursing homes. Emeis Ireland currently operates 23 other nursing homes. Am I right in saying that HIQA has taken a decision not to allow any further entrants into the 25 nursing homes that Emeis Ireland runs?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: As matters stand, in terms of the group I hear what Ms Fitzgerald is saying in a regulatory sense, but obviously this group has suffered enormous damage to its brand, credibility and trust. Would Ms Fitzgerald be confident having any of her loved ones right now in a nursing home in the Emeis Ireland group? I think she sort of said she would not be happy having her loved ones in the two...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: Ms Fitzgerald is at the public accounts committee, a public committee. The public out there just want to know. HIQA is the regulator. If people working for HIQA are not satisfied to put their loved ones in an Emeis Ireland-run nursing home, how can the public be satisfied that they can safely put their loved ones in an Emeis Ireland-run nursing home? It is a fairly simple question. Given...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: Ms Fitzgerald said at the health committee that the first time she saw footage of what took place in the "RTÉ Investigates" programme was in fact when the programme was aired. Is that right?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: I am not trying to be personal about this, but where did she watch that programme as a matter of interest?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: I am not trying to put personal accountability on Ms Fitzgerald, but she is at the top of this organisation. When she was sitting on the couch watching it at home, how did she personally feel watching that, leaving aside all the legalese and regulatory structures? She mentioned her in-laws and her parents. How did she personally feel watching that?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: Had Ms Fitzgerald ever seen anything worse?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: In her entire time as-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: If someone making a difficult decision and looking at nursing homes in the area in which they live were to learn that one of them was an Emeis Ireland-run nursing home, Ms Fitzgerald will understand the fear that person would have of putting their loved one, whether a child or partner, in an Emeis Ireland-run nursing home, having watched the programme.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: No, this is very specific to Emeis Ireland. The RTÉ programme was the worst thing Ms Fitzgerald, as the head of HIQA, has ever seen. How would someone in that position feel? She will understand the fear they would have.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: Is the problem not that the inspections regime in relation to the two nursing homes that were the subject of the “RTÉ Investigates” programme fundamentally and catastrophically failed, to such an extent that the actions Ms Fitzgerald witnessed in the TV programme were, as she just said, some of the worst things she had ever seen? Notwithstanding the regulatory regime we...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: Does Ms Fitzgerald think HIQA’s inspectors are good enough? Are they sufficiently qualified to do what they are supposed to? What are their qualifications? Do they all have nursing qualifications or gerontology qualifications? Has HIQA looked at that in terms of the people who carry out HIQA inspections?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: That is not being changed.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: I thank the witnesses for the replies they have given so far. Did I hear Ms Cliffe correctly? Did she say that six residents of Beneavin Manor required one-to-one care in November and that by the following April, 18 residents required one-to-one care but there was no commensurate increase in staffing?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: The nursing home had a sufficient number of staff to deal with the increased number of residents who required one-to-one care. Is that Ms Cliffe's conclusion?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: I am asking about now, after the fact and after the "RTÉ Investigates" programme. I am asking about the situation now, whatever about when the inspection took place. Is it Ms Cliffe's conclusion that the nursing home had at all times enough staff to deal with-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: What happened here? Was it reckless behaviour by one or two members of staff, as is being hinted at here? Was it bad management of this particular centre? What went so catastrophically wrong?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Health Information and Quality Authority (17 Jul 2025)

James Geoghegan: Has anyone-----