Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a very pressing issue which involves relatively small amounts of money. It is the situation of hospices in Ireland, in our area of Dublin West, which serves Dublin 15, Dublin 7, much of County Meath and the rest of Dublin, and also the sister service in Raheny under the auspices of St. Joseph's hospice service. When the country was in financial collapse, the staff of the hospices, which are designated section 39 organisations, voluntarily took the parallel FEMPI pay cuts. Staff in hospices are qualified nurses, doctors and physicians and therapists of various kinds and are paid on HSE scales. The Taoiseach's Government is batting this back and forward. The amounts of money are relatively small. The Taoiseach's Government is refusing to fund the hospices to provide for the reinstatement of the FEMPI cuts that the doctors, nurses and home care teams, who we all praise, took. I do not think there is anybody in this Chamber who does not have personal experience of a hospice. Why has the Taoiseach and his Government failed to respond? He is passing the buck from himself to the Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, who has a level of responsibility, and now onto the HSE with the Minister for Health not really being accountable on this. The hospice in Milford is affected by this. The general system of people dying, often in noisy wards in public hospitals, is completely replaced by the hospice movement providing for people in the terminal stages of illness with dignity and grace and with their families around them. I do not understand the Taoiseach's attitude. He is personally aware of the work of the hospices. I do not understand where his Government is coming from.

Given his former role as Minister for Health, I do not understand why the Taoiseach has cut €50,000 from the healthy babies initiative in Ireland which was used to promote breastfeeding. That is another issue.

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