Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It was with great concern I received telephone calls in regard to the provision of incontinence pads to older people by the HSE. I raised this issue in a parliamentary question and it was passed on to the HSE. We need to look at the human side of this issue. Caring for older people, loved ones, is a challenging task at the best of times. People caring for people with disabilities face the same challenge. These people should not have always to fight for basic things to be done right. Unfortunately, people do have to fight constantly to get basic services. I understand that the delivery and supply of these hygiene products was very good until procurement came into play. The centralised procurement process, from the children's hospital to incontinence pads, is leading us to innumerable difficulties. People can no longer depend on the right quantity of product being delivered or on timely delivery. Everyone will accept a one-off blip, even Homer can nod, but when there is a continuous problem the situation becomes serious. As I said, it should never have happened.

When I raised the issue with the HSE, it responded that following a national tender process Freightspeed was the successful bidder and awarded the contract for the delivery of incontinence wear and that while it has encountered some issues around supply it is working hard with Freightspeed to improve the situation. National procurement discounts local deliveries, local suppliers, the people we rely on and the people who care. When are we going to back to a system of procurement that is based not only on price but on service and reputation? I suggest that these contracts should be tendered for locally not nationally because regular, reliable local suppliers are being pushed out by the big people who do not have the same attention to the individuals as was there in the past.

Any of us facing the same situation involving faulty delivery as that facing people in the west of Ireland would ask that we put people ahead of the god of this procurement process that just seems to make a shambles of procurement from the highest level with the over-runs on the children's hospital right down to just delivering a few incontinence pads in time, on time and all the time.

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