Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I wish to ask the Minister a straightforward question. How can we pay Professor Drumm a bonus of €80,000 when the health service is in disarray? The only other person who received an award such as that was Eddie O'Sullivan when he got his contract before the team played in the Rugby World Cup. How can we pay a man a bonus of €80,000 when the health service is in disarray? I want the Minister to answer that question when she responds. It is a disgrace. I would pay the man €2 million a year if he got it right, but he has not got it right.

I visited a man the other day who was very sick. When the doctor told him he had to go to hospital, he cried and pleaded with his son and daughter not to send him. He said if they sent him into hospital, he would come out with MRSA or might not come out at all. Is it not a disgrace that people are afraid to go into hospital because of MRSA and that we cannot even get the matter of basic cleanliness right? Is it not a disgrace that some people go into hospital and come out worse than they went in with MRSA? Something must be done to improve our health service.

I agree some people who get a hospital bed are happy they have got a good service. However, other people are waiting for hip operations, cancer treatment and back operations. It is not right they must wait. Most of these people waiting for operations are elderly and have paid their taxes to the State. The Taoiseach and the Minister tell us daily the Government has never put as much money into the health service. If we have never put as much money into it, why is it in such disarray? Why are so many people pleading with us politicians in an effort to get beds or appointments in hospitals in Dublin and their own towns and cities? The situation is disgraceful and something must be done to deal with it once and for all.

The Minister for Health and Children has talked about centres of excellence for each region, yet currently we cannot get people to hospital appointments, particularly people from areas like north, south and east Mayo. They need to travel distances of 70, 80 or 150 miles but they cannot get to their appointments because the HSE will not transport sick people to them. This is a disgrace when such a small budget is required for it.

I visited the HSE the other day and saw a jeep parked outside. The jeep is equipped for the man in charge with a mobile phone and every kind of equipment he could need. There is even a place for him to rest if he gets tired travelling from Mayo to Castlebar or Roscommon to visit the ambulance service. We have too many bosses, but not enough doctors and nurses. We do not have enough people dealing with those who are sick.

I attended a meeting the other day where I heard every excuse as to why the HSE could not bring patients to hospital appointments. What would it take to bring them? In the context of the overall budget of the HSE it would not cost €1 million to bring them to their appointments. The other day I referred the case of a woman who has not been able to take up her appointment with Merlin Park Hospital for 12 months to the Ombudsman. I hope his office will act on the matter because there is no point in referring it the Minister because she would transfer it to the HSE which could take up to six months to reply, by which time the woman may be dead.

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