Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to offer some brief words on the legislation. I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy John Moloney, to the House and I compliment him on his knowledge of various aspects of Bills he has brought through the House.

I refer to the national cancer strategy, Mayo General Hospital and the transfer of services from Castlebar to Galway. We should receive a report at this stage to outline how the strategy is performing. Is it all it is cracked up to be? Has it progressed as the Minister for Health and Children intended when she first outlined it in the House 12 or more months ago? How is the national cancer strategy working throughout the country? I am led to believe there are still complications and issues of funding and people travelling long distances to and from the various designated centres. I refer also to the ongoing problem with Sligo where people want to hold onto the cancer services being provided there and where the hospital is achieving good results. There should be an open debate on this issue.

The Bill provides for the amalgamation of six bodies in to the HSE and the Department of Health and Children. The National Council on Ageing and Older People, the Women's Health Council and the Crisis Pregnancy Agency will go to the Department of Health and Children. The National Cancer Screening Service Board and the Drug Treatment Centre Board will go to the HSE. I compliment all those who have worked in these areas over the past ten years as they have done tremendous work. They have gathered valuable information for the HSE, for the Department of Health and Children and for the people.

I agree with Senator Bacik that there is a role for specific agencies and I hope that when these bodies are amalgamated into the HSE and the Department of Health and Children that they would still have an identity. Each body has specific expertise which has been gathered over many years and the systems are in place. It would be wrong to amalgamate them for the sake of amalgamation alone and to cut down on the number of agencies. They should retain their own identities within the system. I ask the Minister of State to say the number of staff who will go to the Department, the number who will go to the HSE and the annual saving.

I refer to the 2008 annual report of the HSE which does not make reference to amalgamation of those agencies. The HSE has its own remuneration committee. Will the staff of these bodies be on different levels of pay to HSE staff? There could be a situation where staff transferred from an agency would be on different levels of pay and this should be examined. They are all classified as civil servants, by and large, but there could be different levels of pay.

The Minister of State stated in his contribution that the rationalisation programme was set up under the Health Service Executive Act 2004 and provision was made in other legislation for the integration of a number of agencies within other bodies. There has been an explosion in employment in the HSE. I hope that under this amalgamation process there will not be a further explosion of numbers of staff. Are there any planned redundancies as a result of the rationalisation programme which reduces the number of agencies from 34 to 18?

I wish the Minister of State well with this Bill. I suggest we should be given a report on the performance of the national cancer strategy at national level and at regional level.