Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and I welcome the commitment to ensure that there is going to be appropriate funding. Within the reply, there was a reference to the flow of information for the next six to eight weeks to ensure that the HSE can respond but we need to know for the next number of years; key to that we are looking at a deficit of €4.4 million in the organisation at the end of the year, a deficit of more than I thought of €2.4 million for the current year alone. That is not sustainable for an organisation going into the future, going from week to week. I see where the deficits have been caused exclusively by a decision made by the organisation; that is what is said in the reply here. However the information that was given to the people making that decision was that funding would be made available permanently going into the future and that funding would be put in place to pay those wages. Those commitments were made by members of the Government and Government parties, it was not made by me. It is not acceptable that these people have given their time voluntarily to look after the most vulnerable in our community, have made a decision based on those commitments and have now been left with a huge deficit and uncertainty for staff, service users and their families. We need a commitment and a guarantee going into the future.