Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

They are inside in offices and they are pen pushers. When we had the matrons running the hospitals, they were impeccably clean and sterile environments and they ran them from the front door to the back door, and consultants listened to them. Now we have ward managers, floor managers, bed managers, linen managers, hygiene managers, food managers, and discharge managers. We have managers for everything and nobody managing anything. It is absolute chaos. What happened after Christmas will happen next Christmas, as sure as the three Ministers are sitting over there. It is just incompetence. Hospital services have been closed down. The vast majority of consultants have disappeared. There is a skeleton staff on the front line who worked, might and mayhem, I want to support them but they are not getting the support. We saw one of the most senior people resign in disgust and despair two or three days ago. I heard him say on Friday that he could do nothing with it. He came with a wonderful CV but he was not wanted because he did not get the co-operation. It is shocking situation.

I refer to a long-standing centre, the Circle of Friends cancer support centre, in Tipperary town. It had a new building built and has received fabulous support from the community. It has fabulous volunteers with limited staff. They need to be on a permanent funding basis to deal with people suffering from cancer and needing palliative care. The centre has put in a funding application and hopefully it will be successful. They need to be funded.

There are more Ministers in the Chamber. I do not know how many there are. Are there four or five?

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