Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On a good news point, it is interesting that the World Economic Forum now puts Ireland in the top seven countries for strongest democracies. We are joint sixth with Canada after Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Denmark. It is a credit to the political system in Ireland that we are now regarded as the joint seventh strongest democracy.

Talking about democracy, my colleague, Senator Byrne, raised the issue of the HSE. I have pulled figures from the HSE on what has occurred. The Minister has announced an eight-point plan for slimming it down. I have raised this point before, but I must say that the number of people employed in management and administration over the past two years has increased by the total sum of 1,789. More than 700 of those have been in senior management. For instance, the number of directors has gone from 201 to 272. That is an increase of 71 directors, who are at the top end. That is an increase of 35%. The number of senior managers has gone up by 20.22%, which is an increase of 195 people. We are now talking about slimming it down. The HSE seems to be a juggernaut going down the road with no one in control.