Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----and we can do something about it at a European level to give a direction elsewhere.

Last week the European Parliament voted on a draft law which stated patients should have faster access to cheaper generic drugs. We are all happy to do this, but I am not sure where we go in this area. Only 4% of European hospitals allow people direct access to their medical records. This could come from Europe; whatever about as a directive, an example could be set with regard to access for patients to their medical records online. This would be a very useful step.

If we discuss value for money and serving customers, we should also discuss what happens at EU level. There is austerity throughout Europe but Brussels is still dominated by thousands of highly paid mandarins. The German newspaper Die Welt stated this month that thousands of senior EU officials who earn a basic salary of more than ¤18,000 a month earn more than Angela Merkel, who earns approximately ¤16,000 a month. A group of net contributors to the EU, including Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, want deeper cuts in the pay of European Union officials to fit in with national austerity programmes. The President of the European Parliament stated last year he asked member states to disclose how much they pay their Brussels-based diplomats, to compare this with EU staff. He received a partial reply which he described as a series of disaggregated data. Staff at the Council and European Parliament recently went on strike in spite of their massive salaries and perks. Does Ms Prendergast agree with her fellow workers at the European Parliament going on strike, particularly given the massive amount of austerity at home? A number of EU officials have received several pay rises in recent years. At a time when practically every country in Europe is cutting back, the EU itself is expanding.

Kenneth Cork was a leading liquidator and wrote that he found businesses which got into trouble often had one thing in common, namely, they built a new head office, and it was a guarantee if a fountain was built in the foyer of that new head office. Will Ms Prendergast remind us whether the lovely new head office which the European Parliament has in Brussels has a fountain in the foyer? I cannot remember.