James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

The Minister said earlier last year that she would pursue redundancies, yet when she was asked about it at the end of last year, she said it was a matter for the Minister for Finance. Today again, having told us last week that there would be redundancies, she has put it back into the lap of the Minister for Finance. Who will take responsibility for the HSE? What has changed that makes the Minister believe she can achieve redundancies? In the past she has said that the unions were not co-operating and that there was very little uptake. Will the new posts result in increased salaries or will they be the same or lower, given that everybody else is taking a cut?

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