Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, I spoke about the frustration I was experiencing with respect to vaccine boosters. I was contacted shortly afterwards by a member of the public who heard what I said and he was, in effect, a facsimile of my case as his underlying conditions mirrored mine. His consultant told him to contact his GP and get vaccinated. He contacted the GP but was not on any list he could find so he contacted the HSE helpline. By the time he contacted me yesterday, the man was extremely angry. I said I would try it myself today and I rang the number this morning. I had to ring twice because I made a mistake in one of the number of options. It was 34 minutes and 32 seconds before I got a reply from a human being, and that is simply not good enough.

Older people who are concerned or worried about their condition and vaccine booster cannot be left for 34 minutes on the phone. The person who contacted me was a lot longer on the phone and he claimed he had been somewhere close to an hour on the call. At the end of the call, all I got was that my name would be put on a list. That was after 34 minutes and 32 seconds and it is bloody well not good enough.

The Deputy Leader is a former member of the Defence Forces and will understand what I am about to mention. There has been €40 million saved by the Exchequer because we are not promoting people in the Defence Forces. There are almost 700 non-commissioned officer vacancies that remain unfilled. We can add to this the number of people we have not recruited, and all this brings us to the €40 million. One wonders if we are saving money on personnel to buy hardware such as ships and the like. Just think of what that €40 million would do for the families who are struggling. The Deputy Leader knows the rank system better than I do so she would have some sympathy with those who serve in the Defence Forces on that. I hope we might use that €40 million in a better way.