Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)

I have the 2009 plan here and agree it is a good plan. I suggest the HSE is the problem and that it is a managerial problem. For example, in Wicklow there is co-funding of €3 million for a €6 million hospice and an ongoing operational expenditure is proposed of €2.5 million. We know this is provided at a cost saving and that in terms of the economics, it saves us significant money. As the Minister pointed out, we are now in a Fianna Fáil-induced IMF world and must try to save money. While I am delighted the HSE report has been made and bought into by the stakeholders, the people within the hospice world to whom I have been talking say there is no transparency within the HSE. In Wicklow, for example, there has been a local buy-in to the plan, but it disappears into the morass of the HSE. Can anything be done about that organisation, which does not appear to be reacting to its own plan, specifically in an area which could save us significant money and provide better health care to people all over the country?

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