Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

The Minister is aware that the HSE is receiving €370 million less than it believed necessary to maintain the existing level of services for this year. The HSE clearly has been preparing for this, judging by its actions at local level. I raise this issue because I have been unable to get a satisfactory response from the HSE to questions I asked over the last few days, where I was effectively refused proper information on what it is doing and who will be affected. There is a widespread rumour circulating that up to 140 staff contracts will not be renewed at the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore, as well as a smaller number in Portlaoise. I cannot verify the figure because nobody from the HSE will tell me. When I quote a figure they tell me they did not say that. Their response is that contracts are frequently not renewed and that contracts are often for a specific job only. This belies the fact that those whose contracts are being examined include nurses, attendants and porters, all of whom are involved in the delivery of front-line services. The notion that a nurse's work is complete is nonsense and the HSE's actions will have a direct effect on patients.

There are four orthopaedic surgeons in Tullamore who are each only doing one hip operation per week, because 12 surgical beds and four general beds have been closed to balance the books. In the absence of the Minister for Health and Children, I ask the Minister of State to direct the HSE to state publicly what contracts are under threat and what effect this will have on services delivered to patients. What effects will this have on the opening of all facilities in Tullamore?

I join with Deputy Reilly and my colleagues in their comments on those suffering from cystic fibrosis. The unimplemented Pollock report was published three years ago this month. I asked the Minister about her policy on the care of cystic fibrosis patients, about adequate segregation and about comparisons in mortality rates as far back as 2005. I was told that the HSE multidisciplinary working group's work was at an advanced stage. This remains the standard response, but the many patients who spoke, often on behalf of those who could no longer speak for themselves, proved all that is at an advanced stage is their own disease.

Why is the mortality rate so poor here when compared to so many other countries? What steps will be taken to address this? We are now told, in incremental stages and depending on the level of negative publicity, that six single rooms will be provided in Saint Vincent's University Hospital in the next ten to 18 weeks. Can the Minister of State provide us with an exact timescale for the delivery of isolation facilities, both for inpatients and outpatients, on a sufficient level and geographical spread, to address the needs of patients across the country? The urgency of this cannot be overestimated. It is utterly cruel to leave these young men and women exposed to MRSA and other life-threatening diseases. I am not sure whether the Government fully grasps the trauma for a young person in a ward with a much older seriously ill patient suffering from a range of illnesses and reacting in different ways. Adding in the fact that the illnesses of such elderly patients can affect their lives we can get some idea of what a cystic fibrosis patient may have to face. All Members of the House want to see real and immediate improvements for cystic fibrosis patients. The difference, however, is the Government has the power to deliver, and patients are definitely not seeing improvements.

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