Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

At a time when front-line services are being hit daily in hospitals throughout the country, we find that hundreds of thousands of euro have been paid by the HSE for staff in the new children's hospital which is not due to open for a number of years. We know there has been wanton waste in the HSE and received a further reminder of this earlier in the week in the form of the skills spending scandal, a matter the Committee of Public Accounts is addressing today. However, it now seems it has extended to the HSE paying staff for jobs to be done in a hospital not yet open. The Leader of the Opposition, Deputy Kenny, asked the Taoiseach yesterday, in the light of the endless waste scandals emerging in the HSE, whether he would consider dismantling it. Following today's revelations, the case for doing so seems clear. This view has been regularly expressed by Members on both sides of the House.

Speaking of waste, the final bill for the e-voting machines appears to be €55 million. The misspending on the PPAR system in the HSE was described by the Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, at the time in question as involving a very small amount. The time has come to rid the country of this waste and the wasters also. Wasters is the title of a well named book published recently.