Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 9, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following:"(3) One member shall be nominated by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), and shall be appointed by the Minister so long as they have sufficient experience and expertise relating to matters connected with the functions of the Executive to enable them to make a substantial contribution to the effective and efficient performance of those functions.”.

I will be brief as we discussed this on Committee Stage. This amendment would allow for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to nominate a person to be a member of the board. That person could not serve in a representative function but the HSE is the single biggest employer in the State and this provision is no harm, notwithstanding the hostility sometimes expressed in here towards trade unions. I am the daughter of a trade union official and I am a former trade union official so I do not share any of that hostility. Trade unions are wonderful and this would be a wonderful nominating body to the Health Service Executive, which is the single biggest employer in the State, as I said. That is why I tabled the amendment.

I consulted some of the representative groups within the health service. In other State enterprises the workers have a representative, notwithstanding the fact that the person could not act in a representative capacity. The purpose of the amendment is for a person to bring to the table the experience of being an employee of the HSE, which is really not as much fun as people might imagine all the time. We often are charged in here with being ideological, as if that is bad.

I do not think there is enough ideology in this place sometimes but that is where my amendment is coming from.

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