Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

The Government cutbacks illustrate how its chickens are coming home to roost. They result from its mismanagement of the economy and the way resources were squandered when money was freely available during recent years.

The Taoiseach has given false assurances that frontline services will not be affected by the proposed cutbacks. He and the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, have said that the most vulnerable in our society will be protected. This has already been proved incorrect and I offer an example of how such people are being hit. In the western area, the HSE has notified all providers of services to the disadvantaged sections of our communities that their budgets have been cut by 1%. Those cutbacks will directly affect, among others, the service provided by Ability West, formerly the Galway Association, the Irish Wheelchair Association, Enable Ireland, Rehab Care, the Brothers of Charity and Autism West. This week, Ability West was obliged to inform the parents of 430 adults and children in Galway city and county about the cutbacks it has been forced to adopt because of a reduction in its budget, despite rising costs this year. The same will apply to other services. In the case of Ability West, parents have been informed of cutbacks under eight headings. I have a copy of that letter, sent to 430 parents, outlining where the cutbacks will fall.

The most heartless examples are, first, the cutbacks in food which had been available to day users of the service and, second,the cessation of the weekly allowance paid to workers in the various work centres. The allowance amounted to only €5 or €6 a week in some cases and up to €25 or €30 in others but it gave the participants a sense of the value of their work.

In addition, Ability West will not now be able to guarantee occasional respite care for families of mentally or physically handicapped offspring. This will be the last straw for the parents of such children who struggle to continue to provide critical services for the disadvantaged members of their families. How much more will they be able to take? How much more will it cost the State to provide institutional care for such persons? The cutbacks in all social services make an enormous difference in the quality of life of the sick, the old and the disadvantaged, and their families. What galls the parents and families in such cases is seeing the vast amount of money that the Government has squandered in recent years. It gave millions in tax breaks to the rich and now the most vulnerable in society are being punished.

Parents who have dedicated their entire lives to the welfare of the disadvantaged family member must find it impossible to understand why their services are being cut back by the Government and the HSE. At the same time they see the HSE has awarded 111 high-ranking administrative staff over €1.2 billion in bonuses, an average of €11,000 each, over and above their annual salaries, which in some cases amount to over €400,000. I got those most recent figures from the Committee of Public Accounts. The HSE also created an extra 263 managerial and administrative grades between 2005 and 2006. That figure is also extracted from the minutes of the Committee of Public Accounts, page 227.

The Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, is silent at this time of cutbacks. The Taoiseach stated, falsely, that the most vulnerable sections of our community will not be affected. The Minister is not here. She is not interested and will neither listen nor hear. She has deserted the most vulnerable in their hour of need. Action speaks louder than words. I call on the Minister to discontinue the order of cutbacks to those bodies which provide such excellent services and to ensure that they receive at least the same budget as last year. Let the Minister find her cutbacks from the bonuses and inflated salaries of the monster she created when she established the HSE. The disadvantaged families have taken enough of them.

This morning the Taoiseach referred to cutbacks as a down-payment for the future. He is damn right, the cutbacks he imposes on the most vulnerable in society are a down-payment for what those people and their families will suffer over the coming years. The disadvantaged will pay for the rest of their lives. I appeal to the Minister of State, Deputy Devins, who is in the Chamber, the Minister for Health and Children and the Taoiseach to reverse those charges. The eight service providers I mentioned have been cut back in the same way. I gave only the example of Ability West. Let the Taoiseach tell the Minister to restore the grant to the HSE in order that those bodies can continue to provide the great service they have provided down the years.

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