Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It gives me no pleasure to say the Taoiseach's answer reeks of dishonesty. Let us cut the verbiage, the waffle and all the talk on the average and all the rest of it. I met the five hospices yesterday. The bottom line is the Government has not given them the money to restore pay. The reason there was strike notice this week is that one hospice did not pay. There has been no retrospection of pay. The Minister of State with responsibility for disability, Deputy Finian McGrath, should be up in arms in regard to the disability arguments. I have met St. Joseph's Foundation, Charleville. It is in debt, in crisis. Let us cut all the nonsense and the waffle. When the cuts happened, the HSE went down to the CEO of each of these organisations and said: "Cut. If you do not, we will cut your money". They are the only people in the health service who were excluded, deliberately and cynically, from the pay restoration agreement. There is no rationale for it.

I got a similar reply previously. The Taoiseach mentions St. Francis Hospice in every reply I get. That is fine, but the reality is the Taoiseach said the same thing over 12 months ago. He has been seeking information for about 15 months. The people love the hospices of this country. They will do anything for them. It is about time the Government did more than just sip a cup of coffee or tea with them and actually gave them what they are entitled to, the same as the nurses and all the other health alliance professionals working in other organisations in the health service. He and I know they should not even be section 39 organisations. They should be fully integrated into our health service. We should take lessons from them because they are the most trusted, well received and popular services in our health service across the country.

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