Tony Mulcahy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Colm Burke raised a very important issue regarding section 38 funding. This issue has been close to my heart over the past two and a half years and I have been highlighting it since I became a Member of the House. Colleagues in the House often raise issues relating to the intellectual disability service providers and the various non-governmental organisations, NGOs. I have always asked them to ask one question, "How much is the chief executive officer and the management team being paid?", before they protest on behalf of that agency. The salaries in these groups are more than 40% higher than what the HSE pays those pay grades. We saw what emerged yesterday, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. It will be drip fed, which is unfortunate. Senator Burke should have been given that answer a couple of months ago.

I seek a special debate in the House on section 38 funding, the salaries paid to these people and what level of control we have over those. I do not believe a CEO in any of these agencies should be paid more than a principal officer. That is a fair wage. It is beyond me how anybody can justify drawing a salary of €220,000 in the intellectual disability service sector and in excess of €300,000 in respect of rehabilitation care. I can name all of them, including the Brothers of Charity Services, Daughters of Charity Services, St. Joseph's, St. Michael's House and so forth. I have no fear of naming these people. Senator Moran has spent six to eight months trying to get a set of accounts from one group, but she cannot get it. This money is given by the Government to these people to spend on our behalf. They are spending a heck of a lot of it, and much of it on themselves. In addition to the salary I mentioned, there would be a new car every two years, more than likely, and a free telephone. They do not put their hands in their pockets to buy them.

The Leader has heard me raise this issue repeatedly. In the past two weeks I put the matter down as a special subject for debate at parliamentary party level. We must stop this. A total of €3.4 billion is going to these groups. Another key issue is the advocacy groups. They provide no service at all. They advocate on behalf of the clients. I firmly believe all the money given to advocacy groups should be stopped immediately. It is going to pay the CEOs €150,000 to €200,000 and what they primarily do is tell the HSE or the Government what my daughter or, in Senator Moran's case, her son, needs. There are many other parents in the House. We do not need anybody to act on our behalf. We can do it ourselves. We do not need an advocacy group. That money must be stopped now and spent more appropriately on the front-line services that all Members rave about in the House.

I ask the Leader to invite the Minister to the House for a special debate on section 38 funding and what we are getting for it. There is €3.4 billion involved, which is serious money. The next time Members receive a representation from any of these people, they should ask them how much they pay their CEO. They will be stunned at the levels of pay.