Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

The wrong and brazen acceptance of a €70,000 bonus by Mr. Drumm in the HSE gives rise to my request to the Leader for a debate on the fact that we have, effectively, two Departments of health. We have the Department of Health and Children, a big Department based in Dublin, with a highly expert Civil Service staff whose members attained highly in school to achieve entry, and around the country, under the auspices of the HSE, an alternative health Department with equal or greater numbers employed. I ask the Leader to explain the differences in the jobs done by the two Departments. Could we have a discussion on the considerable waste that results from having a Department of Health and Children, staffed to the brim with the best of people, in Dublin and at the same time an entire Department outside Dublin in the form of the HSE which has a whole system of bonuses, even in a year when there was underperformance?