Michael McCarthy (Labour)

It is clear that public sector reform now means giving the Health Service Executive €30 million to sack 1,000 people who work under its auspices at present. This morning in the Dáil, the Tánaiste replied to questions from the Opposition by stating the Government was considering an application by the HSE for €30 million for the aforementioned 1,000 redundancies. According to Government sources, it is as though there is no connection between the HSE and the Government. However, the Government created the bureaucratic nightmare that is the executive. This body is almost impossible to deal with from a customer service point of view and is equally difficult to deal with from a public representative's perspective.