Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second the amendment to the Order of Business on the issue of the national children's hospital. It is beyond belief that the HSE would only now be commissioning a traffic survey. One would imagine that kind of work would have been done in advance. It just shows the incompetence of the organisation.

Will the Leader to organise a debate on a disturbing story reported today? Will he inquire of the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Minister for Health who in the HSE will be fired given that the HSE did nothing about an abuse victim, whose abuse was identified four years earlier. The HSE was informed about the abuse and yet it continued for four years. The HSE's excuse was that it fell through the cracks. In the name of God, it is unacceptable for a child of four to continue to be abused even though the State is made aware of it. It is simply not an excuse to say it fell through the cracks and that we will get it the next time. What is even worse, the HSE's defence was that it happened in light of austerity. This was brought to its attention in July 2007. There was no austerity or cutbacks at that stage and yet it is trying to use a flippant excuse. Somebody in the HSE was responsible for that abuse continuing. That person is as bad as the perpetrator because he or she is continuing to work in the system and is getting paid, but is obviously incompetent.

I call for the Minister for Finance to come to the House to clarify whether politicians, judges and senior civil servants will be exempt from the 70% tax on pensions in excess of €60,000. There seems to be a lack of clarity on this and we are told it will be dealt with in the Finance Bill. We know the people dealing with the Finance Bill are the senior civil servants who will be affected by this measure. The establishment and the elite in the Department of Finance being able to exempt themselves, judges and other senior civil servants sounds like the worst form of cronyism and cosy-cartel elitism that one could imagine. Can the Leader clarify whether judges, senior politicians and senior civil servants will be exempt from the 70% tax?