Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important matter for the staff at the hospital in Crumlin, as well as the parents and the sick children who will be most affected by these cuts. Our Lady's Children's Hospital is widely recognised as a quality hospital for paediatrics. People across the country avail of the services and the very high quality facilities there.

The hospital has been forced to employ agency staff because of the recruitment freeze by the HSE, and now it is being forced to let them go. Cutting front-line services is not the way to deliver a quality health service and to ensure the best outcome for patients. That must be the bottom line. Cutting front-line staff numbers in the HSE will only lead to further pressures on the remaining staff. Ultimately, it will mean longer waiting times for the children who urgently need treatment. It is inevitable that the service to sick children will be affected if 100 staff are removed. There is no question about that.

Parents with sick children cannot afford to wait for treatment and they do not want to be told that there is a two-year waiting list for essential treatment for their small child. They do not want to know about service planning and they do not want to know about meeting efficiencies. They simply want their sick children treated as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I urge the Minister for Health and Children to review the HSE structure to allow for cuts to be made in areas that do not affect patients. The logic of spending €19 million on a report on the hospital service in the north east does not stack up when compared to cuts of 100 temporary and agency staff in the leading children's hospital in the State. There is a question of priorities when deciding where to impose cuts. The Minister of State and the Minister should find a way to ensure that front-line staff are not sacrificed for what is effectively a book-keeping exercise.

See this speech in context