Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A number of service providers for people with intellectual disabilities come within the remit of the agreement and they do not have a difficulty with this. However, the media have reported in recent weeks on a scenario where the HSE, in a desperate effort to deliver the €150 million in savings, is, wrongly or erroneously, applying the agreement to these disability organisations. I alleged this in an e-mail to the chief financial officer more than a month ago to which I have not received a response. For example, Sunbeam House Services in my constituency estimated the savings it would have to make under the agreement at €77,000. It expected the HSE to reduce its budget by €77,000, with services to continue as staff took various pay hits and there were changes to working conditions. However, the organisation's administrators saw on the system that it had been docked €189,000 or an additional €122,000.

I have looked through these figures. One could arrive from Mars and look through them and find no correlation between this reduction and a Government instruction, diktat or policy that I know of to reduce disability services funding further. I am a little worried that there is a scenario where the Haddington Road agreement is being used as a cover by the HSE to extract more money than is intended under the agreement. Will Mr. Watt comment on that?