Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Following on from Deputy Kelleher's statements on scoliosis, no one watching the "Prime Time Investigates" programme could not have been moved by it.

I believe people are more likely to become just numbers when people in management positions have no clinical expertise and administrators have no medical training and are not bound to any medical ethics, as doctors and members of other professions are. Management structures within the HSE should contain people with clinical experience, though not necessarily doctors, and they should make the decisions. By having administrators who are not bound by any medical ethics, we ended up in the situation in which we find ourselves. It is a shame that this was exposed on "Prime Time" and that the Minister had to intervene. I commend him on his intervention and I have great hope for the unit being opened. Ireland and I thank him for that. It is shameful that this happened under the watch of Mr. O'Brien and I have to question his ability to do the job in this regard.

I find it difficult to understand why all the management and staff of the HSE were thanked today for their wonderful work when no company, except maybe one in a small cottage industry, can be said to have staff who are all operating to the best of their ability. There are people in the HSE, in management and among front-line staff, who go beyond their duties every day, working extra hours for no pay, but I am surprised the questioning of people's ability has been taken so personally. We have seen the impact of poor management and it is fully within the rights of this committee to question the competence of certain people.

Somebody spoke of giving the HSE a kicking in the context of the budget but we are elected members of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann and nobody should take it personally that we should question the use of taxpayers' money in light of what has recently been exposed in the media.

Perhaps Ms Mannion could share her response to Senator Burke's question with the rest of us. Can she outline where the extra 1,400 or 1,600 staff to whom she referred originated? I have strongly suspected for a long time that people are being recycled around the system. Can she also say how they ended up in the position they are in? I would like to get one of those digital babies from Cork. We did not get them in Dublin.