Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

I am glad to have the opportunity to raise this matter. I will take every opportunity that comes to raise the scandal that senior HSE executives are about to be paid €1.4 million in bonuses. They will receive these bonuses in addition to their salaries and the amounts will range from €10,000 to €80,000. For example, the chief executive earns €380,000 and may get a bonus of up to €80,000, which would bring his pay to €1,700 every working day or €8,500 per week. I am disgusted with this decision which shows breathtaking arrogance at a time when there are such savage cutbacks on the front line of the health services.

How can I explain this decision to the woman who came into my office on Monday, crying over her physically challenged 24 year old son who was attending a training centre workshop and was getting €20 a week plus a meal? He came home crying because he no longer gets his €20 a week, which was equivalent to his wages. It would take him eight years to earn what the chief executive of the Health Service Executive earns in one week.

What about the cutbacks in home help? No wheelchairs, medical aids or appliances are available for people in desperate need. There are cutbacks in respite care for parents at their wits' end caring for their disadvantaged daughter or son at home. What about the disabled person who cannot get a grant for a stair lift or a downstairs bathroom because there is no money available for that? Doctors have warned that 20 people a week are in desperate pain and will suffer as orthopaedic operations are reduced to save money.

For the period up to the end of September there were more people on trolleys than for the whole of last year. In University College Hospital Galway for the month of April 2007 there were 183 people on trolleys and this year there were 444 people on trolleys for the same month. The HSE has cancelled the flu injections promised for medical card holders aged more than 50. I could mention several other matters, including cancer scandals and 250,000 bed days lost in hospitals, which is the equivalent of a 600-bed hospital like Beaumont being closed for one year. The list is endless. The Minister tells us there are no cutbacks on the front line, but all the cutbacks are on the front line.

The blame for the current health crisis must be laid clearly on the shoulders of the Government. It squandered taxpayers' money over the past five years on many pet projects, including €6 million on electronic voting and several millions on the "Bertie Bowl" and PPARS. Now the people on the front line of the health service are suffering. Where is the Minister for Health and Children? I call on her to step in and stop this rot. I do not apologise to anybody for raising this matter and I will take every opportunity to raise this breathtaking scandal of HSE executives awarding themselves €1.4 million in bonuses at a time when people on the front line of the health service are suffering.

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