John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Let us turn to the HSE. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was at the forefront of denying the legitimate and approved award of 5% under report No. 42 of 2007 of the review body on higher remuneration in the public service. The excuse the Department trotted out was the financial emergency measures in the pubic interest, FEMPI, legislation. If this cohort of workers within the HSE are constantly being stonewalled by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, whose Secretary General is now the same man who was in the equivalent position in the Department of Health, what can be done to resolve that and build some sort of working relationship with that particular cohort of workers, all of whom are quite annoyed by what has happened?