Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has said the Government's reform programme is ambitious and revolutionary almost, but it is nothing of the sort. He has dressed up things that are housekeeping and streamlining measures and tried to pass them off as some great change. The Government has consistently protected a segment within the public and Civil Service at the very top and defended them at every turn. They are cosseted and the Government shows no sign of taking that on. The big issue is that of pay equity and fairness in the system, and the Government has failed on that.

If the Government was making any claim that there had been any kind of cultural change within the service, two top officials from the Department of Health and the HSE comprehensively gave the lie to that at the last meeting of this committee. We have a major problem with accountability, transparency, delivery and the level of pay at the very top level. I could comment longer but my time is limited.

What are the 88 allowances to which the Minister has referred? To whom are they being paid? What grades are involved? What are the savings envisaged from those 88?