Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister well with her added responsibilities. There are several salaried positions offered at over €100,000, for example for director of services. I presume that these people were formerly in the HSE where at the other end of the scale nurses are being recruited at 20% less than the standard salary these people are being offered. Many of them are mature students. There is gross inequity across the board. The Minister's colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, is presiding over a situation in which the director-designate of the new agency replacing the HSE is appointing five directors again at salaries in the region of over €150,000. People find it hard to digest and accept what the Government is doing with regard to these appointments particularly in these straitened times when austerity measures affect people particularly those at the lower levels of the HSE.

See this speech in context