Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be very brief. The point is quite clear. The programme for Government outlines the dismantling of the HSE and the establishment of another agency to deliver health care and to bring it under the auspices of the Department of Health. When Fine Gael was in opposition, it was very clear that it wanted to dismantle the HSE. It said it was bureaucracy gone mad and wholly inefficient, and other terms were used to describe it on a continual basis to make political capital out of the HSE. However, we now find that, in government, not only has the bureaucracy the party so much reviled not been reduced, but it has increased.

The figures, as outlined by Deputy Fleming, are quite shocking. Senior hospital management has increased by 11% at the same time as there has been an attack on front-line services right across the health service from consultants down. Could the Minister refocus and reprioritise in order that a recruitment process could be initiated for consultants and others involved in the delivery of key health services that are most needed, namely, front-line services, and that we would stop the feathering of senior hospital management, which is something Fine Gael was opposed to only four years ago? Could the Minister outline the actions he is taking to ensure funding is available for the delivery of priority front-line services and not for the recruitment of senior hospital management?

There has been a reduction in staff among the lower clerical grades of 4% at the same time as there has been a huge increase in the number of senior hospital management grades. There has been an increase in that staff cohort from 273 to 303, an increase of 11%. The Minister’s priorities have gone askew, which exposes the hypocrisy of what his party said it would do and what it is doing.

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