Seanad debates

Wednesday, 14 June 2006

10:30 am

Photo of Brian HayesBrian Hayes (Fine Gael)

Later today, the Irish Nurses Organisation will again protest on the streets of Dublin about the conditions and salaries of its members. Many thousands of nurses are flabbergasted that, at a time when they have been asked to work so hard within the acute hospital system, many senior and middle managers within the Health Service Executive, HSE, have awarded themselves such a massive increase in salary, pay and conditions. There must be a sense of perspective in this regard.

The chief executive of the HSE has stated that his priority on assuming the job was to build up capacity within the community care services. However, I have discovered that at present, there are seven fewer public health nurses in Dublin than was the case in 2001. This is despite the massive growth in population in the greater Dublin area and the greater pressure which has been placed on postnatal care services and on many existing schemes catering for the elderly. It is horrendous that, at a time when the delivery of quality community care is expected, HSE executives appear to be more concerned with paying themselves fat salaries than with delivering the kind of results Members expected when the Government decided to introduce radical reforms, such as removing politicians from health boards and similar measures.

Members should debate the manner in which the health service is being administered and governed with the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children before the summer recess, in order to bring some accountability to the system and to ensure value for money and that those people who are working hard will receive their deserved rewards.

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