Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not know if the Deputy has had an opportunity to read the reform plan in detail. It is a radical and dramatic plan to change the way in which services are delivered. She touched on some aspects of it. The old idea was that one throws money or bodies at a problem and things get better. The process of applying for a medical card should not be much different from applying for an airline ticket or other tasks that can be done online. We are examining the 20 biggest processes in the public service by volume to make them more accessible to people. We have rolled out 500,000 public service cards and an additional 900,000 cards will issue during the course of this year. People should be able to access public services online more easily in future. That is the way many people access services in the private sphere. We want to make sure they can do likewise in the public sphere. Many people who were involved in these processes may not be required. If the Deputy goes into a bank or an airport, she will not see same quantum of people who were previously doing things that can now be done electronically. We are anxious to provide for that back level of support.

I think we will agree that the HSE was structured in a chaotic fashion whereby a superstructure was put on top of an existing health board structure without any clarity in regard to function. That resulted in a lack of function and, sometimes, dysfunction. We need to change that and the Minister for Health is involved in that process. It is indicated that the quantum of people who work in the HSE and, probably, the Department of Health include people who are surplus to requirement. They can be redeployed or, where they cannot be redeployed, the HSE will tell me there are specific people for whom there is no job on the administrative side. Similarly, the Department of Education and Skills may tell me there are surplus people in the rationalised education and training boards. If we need to provide money for targeted voluntary redundancy schemes, I am willing to investigate where we can fund them.