Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Committee of Public Accounts we want to know if the HSE had half of that amount would it be a great boost to the HSE's budget? I will link this to the next question. I received a phone call over the lunch break to say the HSE direct home help staff in Laois have been told that from tomorrow there will be no more overtime for any weekend work and they will be replaced by agency staff because the HSE will not have to pay for travel. Perhaps the overtime rate on a Sunday for the HSE home help staff is a higher cost. We have been talking about older people. This will impact on older people with dementia, for example, who are used to a particular person coming in to them. Now on a Saturday or Sunday there will be agency people. I cannot believe there is anything wrong with the HSE's own staff precisely because they are the HSE staff. I presume this weekend issue is due solely to financial reasons. Will somebody please send on a note in this regard? I am referring to County Laois and the word is out today. In this report I see a figure for €100 million owed to the HSE because private facilities in public hospitals have not been paid for and within the same hour I have been told that HSE home help staff are instructed they can no longer visit clients at the weekend because the overtime is too dear. Do the witnesses get the point I make?