Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The arrogance oozing from the former director general of the HSE, Paul Reid, and from its new director general. They do not give a toss about the people, and that is being honest. The sooner they are removed, the better. The sooner Secretaries General and other people who have responsibility are taken out of office and sacked, the better. They do not care about people either.

I compliment Sinn Féin on bringing this motion forward. I have figures here. Imagine the amateur psychology that goes on when an ambulance 999 call is made and the ambulance is dispatched from Donegal to Clonmel just to tick a box for the time it was dispatched, but no time is thought of for when it might arrive. The ambulance might be transferred three times on the way. The waiting lists at South Tipperary General Hospital and the cancellation of so many procedures are just shocking. The nurses and doctors on the front line work tirelessly and fabulously, but management is an abomination and a shame.

We give money to the HSE. When I came here first, the amount involved was about €11 billion per year. Now it is twice that. There is no accountability. Look at the mess at University Hospital Limerick. The manager there refuses to step aside, stand down or have transparency. We get promises that the emergency departments in St. John's Hospital, Nenagh General Hospital and Ennis General Hospital might be opened. That will not happen because the mandarins do not want it. The beds were removed under successive Governments. The current Government will not restore them. I hope to see Sinn Féin in power. I eagerly wait to see how many beds will be restored and what will happen, because consultants and others are dictating things. The patient comes last. and the patient is last. The Government's patient first strategy is a load of bunkum. There are consultant's reports and Mazars is looking into the better management of Cork University Hospital. The money it has got is obscene. It is corruption of the highest order and it is disgusting

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