John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

Every Member of the House is entitled to the information but we are not getting it. Therefore one cannot provide the direct response or position to the client or customer one represents in one's constituency. This is not good politics and the Minister should correct it.

I attended a meeting of the HSE in Kilkenny and I must state I was shocked, because none of the information or booklets we were given on the cutbacks on every service across the board - and we expected some reductions - had one single comment on how the administrative staff in the HSE, of which we are told 2,000 do not even know their job descriptions, were to be dealt with. There was not one single line on it. However, in every line the patient suffered because of the withdrawal of services.

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