Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important motion on health services. It gives me an opportunity to hammer home once again what is going on in our health service, in particular the €750 million cuts to the National Service Plan 2012 which will have a detrimental affect on patient safety and front line services. Closing acute hospital beds and operating theatres should never be an option. The sick, the elderly and the disabled did not cause this financial crisis and should not now have to pay for it. That is the key issue in this debate tonight. It is the reality to which the Government must face up.

The Croke Park Agreement is an important part of this debate. I am sick and tired of all the attacks on public servants, teachers, nurses, doctors and, in particular, those providing front line health services. The Croke Park Agreement is now a dirty phrase. Let us look at the facts and at what is happening on the ground. The Croke Park Agreement has thus far succeeded in delivery of €3.5 billion in payroll and pension costs. The staff are delivering on the ground. In the first year of four, Croke Park Agreement measures have led to savings of more than €680 million, made up of payroll and efficiency savings plus cost avoidance initiatives. Last November, the Croke Park Implementation Body outlined additional reforms achieved and under way and reported concrete progress on leave standardisation, rationalisation of services, redeployment, shared service initiatives and many other local and national reforms. The body will quantify the savings achieved in its second annual report in mid-2012.

The following savings have been achieved thus far by public servants on the ground - €50 million per annum through the redeployment of surplus teachers; €7 million through new rosters in medical laboratories; €3.5 through changes in radiography services; €20 million through changed prison work practices; almost €1 million by St. Michael's House disability services; €220,000 by Our Lady's Hospice in Dublin; €685,000 annual savings by Teagasc and a further 20% cut in local authority staffing, resulting in a further €16.5 million in payroll savings. These figures and statistics have not thus far been put into the public domain. These are the facts.

While I disagree with sections of the motion, in particular the part which deals with the universal health issue, it is important that the other issues are dealt with in a comprehensive manner. It is a bit rich of the Minister, Deputy Reilly, to have a go at the Independents. For as long as I have been a Member of this House, the Independents have always put health and disability issues top of the political agenda. We have always used our vote to deliver services to people on the ground. That is the reality.

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