Dáil debates

Thursday, 20 June 2013

Other Questions

Public Sector Staff Issues

6:25 pm

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's openness to looking at this. On the specific examples I cited, I hope he would engage with the former FUGE branch of IMPACT. They have compiled an analysis, the facts of which I have given the Minister, in which they maintain the Department could get the same services for considerably less money. Obviously, they would favour full-time staff employed in these low-paid jobs. Often it is thought that IMPACT represents higher-paid workers. In fact, IMPACT represents a substantial number of low-paid workers in the Government service.

I agree with the Minister that there must be robust scrutiny of these matters. One cannot generalise too much, but it has been acknowledged that we had a problem, for example, with hygiene in many hospitals. A case at least has been made to me - it must be looked into - that part of the decline in hygiene standards in hospitals is because there are outside contractors which do not have the same allegiance to the hospital. They are in and out and the company or agency picks up its money. They get the job done in the minimum time possible, whereas directly employed staff would have a real feeling, passion, loyalty for and an association with the hospital on a fixed base. There is a case for looking at whether there is a connection between those two issues because we are seeing a much greater degree of outsourcing of such services in the health service. For example, is there a connection with MRSA?

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