Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. The question that people in the HSE will ask, as they did when the Minister's predecessor, Senator Reilly, said he was going to get rid of the HSE, and as happened when Mr. Andrew Lansley said he would get rid of the primary care trusts, is, "Will I have a job?" Slimming down means fewer staff, which means some people will be on voluntary or compulsory redundancy unless there is natural attrition. We have a lot of very good people within the HSE. We all agree there are layers of bureaucracy that should not be there in the organisation and, the same applies in some of the acute settings as well. Many good people will watch this process carefully and think their job or post may not exist in the new slimmed down agency. When will people know if they will have a job in the new HSE?