The private pension levy is already causing severe hardship for pensioners and will have a major effect on pensioners in the future. The pensioners from Tara Mines who protested outside the gates recently outlined the effect this measure would have on them. As a former Minister for Social Protection, I am aware that pensions were already under pressure owing to the global downturn. The Government, against the advice of the Pensions Board and officials in the Departments of Social Protection and Finance, has added to the pressure on pensioners. Its excuse for introducing the pension levy was that it would be used to create jobs. However, it was confirmed by the Minister for Finance yesterday that only slightly more than half of the money collected by the pension levy this year would be used for job creation purposes. I have a simple question for the Tánaiste. Will the Government introduce legislation to refund to pensioners the money taken from them by the Government under false pretences?
Leaders’ Questions
We have to fill the hole the previous Government left behind.
What the Government has had to do is undo the mess Deputy Ó Cuív and his colleagues made prior to the general election.
The Tánaiste should answer the question.
Please give him a chance to answer.
In case Deputy Ó Cuív has forgotten the large number of people who are out of work, the Government, as part of its jobs initiative, introduced a temporary levy on pensions of 0.6%, which is considerably less than the amount many companies are charging in administration costs. The companies in question are perfectly capable of absorbing the levy. The jobs initiative launched by the Government last May is working. As the Deputy will have noted from the live register figures published yesterday, we have had the biggest drop in unemployment in four years.
Emigration is the reason for that.
Is the Tánaiste meeting our emigrants on his many trips abroad?
Perhaps they are all at the rugby world cup.
The Deputies opposite have no shame.
There has been a significant reduction in unemployment. In addition, the Government is continuing with its strategy to focus on job creation through the strategic investment programme we have announced and initiatives such as the global Irish economic forum which will take place at the weekend and is intended to bring together people who are in a position to create employment and encourage investment in this country. The pension levy is a temporary measure designed to fund the jobs initiative which has already shown that it is working both in respect of reducing the number of people who are unemployed and creating jobs. That is the priority for the Government and the way to economic recovery.
More than 30,000 jobs have been lost since the Government came to power.
The live register always drops significantly at this time of the year. One of the main reasons for this is the back-to-education allowance the previous Government extended in recent years. I asked a specific question on the pension levy. Slightly more than half the money raised through the levy will be spent on job creation measures. If the Tánaiste checks the expenditure of the Department of Social Protection, he will see it had recorded an underspend of €10 million on its employment measures at the end of August. I do not yet have the detailed figures for the end of September. The money is being collected, but it is not being spent on job creation measures. Will the Government refund the pensioners the money taken from them under false pretences?
All of the money being collected by way of the pension levy is to be used for job creation measures in the four year profile of the jobs initiative. As I indicated, the levy is a temporary measure, the purpose of which is to support the jobs initiative and the creation of employment. While the Deputy is correct that the number on the live register falls every September, the decline in September was the highest recorded in any single month, surpassing the previous largest fall recorded in September 2010. The number on the live register is 32,272 lower than in August 2011 and almost 5,000 lower than in September last year.
The pension levy is a stealth tax, as the Tánaiste would call it.
The Deputy has a brass neck.
I am sure the Tánaiste's eyes watered, as mine did, when he read reports that bonus payments to the tune of €925,000 had been received by executives at Anglo Irish Bank. While I accept the payments were not made on his watch, one individual at the bank is due to receive a payment of €51,000. I am sure that, like me and everyone else in the country, the Tánaiste is mystified at how individuals in an institution that has driven the State to the brink can be due bonus payments. I want to know, first, what the Government will do about that individual payment and, more broadly in regard to Anglo Irish Bank, how 22 of the 50 senior people who were employed in the bank at a time when it was at the height of its dangerous casino capitalism can remain there, and how 19 of those can receive salaries in excess of €175,000. After all, this is now a nationalised bank, although toxic and the root of many of our evils. How is it that people can receive these salaries and what will the Government do about it? In the same vein, developers in NAMA are pocketing €200,000. As the Tánaiste and leader of the Labour Party, how can Deputy Gilmore preside over a scenario where people who made a material contribution to the damage done to this State and the wrecking of our economy can walk away with such big salaries while people on low wages are suffering?
I will not defend for one moment bonuses paid to anyone in Anglo Irish Bank. As the Deputy well knows and acknowledged, the bonuses she refers to arose prior to 2009 and the nationalisation of that bank. Since that date bonuses have been ended. Those she refers to are bonuses that arose or were contractually committed to prior to 2009.
The Government is in the process of winding down Anglo Irish Bank. It was a toxic performer in the Irish economy and contributed greatly to the difficulties we now have. None of the board members who were there at the time of the difficulties that arose in 2008 and 2009 are in position now and there has been a complete change at board level. There is a continuing change in respect of the senior personnel in that bank and the Government is continuing with its programme to wind down the bank and minimise the cost to the Irish taxpayer.
One payment of €51,000 is due. I do not accept the Tánaiste's argument which he has also used in respect of senior public servants, claiming he has to sit on his hands. I ask again what he will do about that payment. Twenty-two of the 50 senior personnel in Anglo Irish Bank are still within the bank. I reiterate for the Tánaiste, that of that 22, 19 take home a salary in excess of €175,000. What will he do about that? He and his colleagues are quick to attack people on welfare payments, accusing those out of work of making a lifestyle choice. The Tánaiste is offering some lifestyle opportunity to officials and senior employees in a toxic bank that has brought us to the brink of ruin. He allows them to walk away with salaries in excess of €175,000. The rhetoric of Government commitment to winding down Anglo Irish Bank and the Tánaiste's words of anger in respect of that bank hold no water. What will he do about the senior employees in the bank and their runaway wages? How can he explain to the public a Government strategy that targets people on welfare and low pay and takes a hands-off attitude to fat cats and those who have brought such tremendous hardship to the country?
The Deputy is wrong.
The Deputy is not wrong.
The Government does not have a strategy——
You are dead right there.
——of targeting people on social welfare or low pay. On the contrary, this Government is defending and supporting those who have lost their jobs——
The household package.
——and find themselves on social welfare payments, and those on low pay.
These people are not on low pay.
That is why we reversed the cut in the minimum wage——
Hear, hear.
——and why we are introducing legislation to reinstate the joint labour committees, JLCs, and regulated employment agreements. That is why this Government will ensure that those who have lost jobs and are dependent on welfare payments and people who are on low pay will be defended and protected——
Answer the question about Anglo Irish Bank.
The people in Anglo Irish Bank are not on the minimum wage.
There will be fairness. Let us tell the story a different way because grandstanding about this issue will not solve the problem.
You spent enough time over in the Opposition benches grandstanding. You were there every day.
Please be quiet, thank you.
Of the 50 people who were at senior level in Anglo Irish Bank prior to nationalisation, 28 are gone——
Twenty-two remain.
——and the Government continues with its programme to wind down that bank.
Hear, hear.
Take credit for the ones that are gone. The ones who remain are our problem.
Of those who were at board level at that stage, all are gone. This Government will not stand over the featherbedding of any person in any part of the banking system——
Twenty-two moved into new senior positions.
The Government is winding down Anglo Irish Bank and the Deputy and the people can be assured that this Government will act fairly and proportionately to everyone. The Deputy's assertion and others of the kind she makes to the effect that this Government is not supporting people on low pay and that there is a different rule for those on high pay are not borne out by the facts.
It is borne out by the facts.
We are winding down that bank, will continue to do so and complete it.
I ask Deputies to listen. Deputy Buttimer is at it again.
I apologise, a Cheann Comhairle.
We live in a democracy. If someone asks a question the person who is asked that question is entitled to give the answer.
They do not like the truth. They cannot handle it.
Equally, the person who asks the question is entitled to get the answer.
Intimidation tactics.
We live in a democracy and as long as that is the case, that will apply to you, Deputy Keaveney. I ask Deputies to behave as if they were elected to a democracy. I call Deputy Higgins.
Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown is a vital acute facility for 333,000 people from Meath to west Dublin and Kildare to north-west Dublin. Recently the HSE demanded a costing on what it would save the hospital to go from a 24-hour accident and emergency service to a 12-hour service. The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, stated at the hospital on Monday there was no such plan. We accept that for now and will park it.
Today, however, there was devastating news. Staff in the hospital received a memo stating that 12 of 31 beds in the acute Laurel ward are closed with immediate effect and a surgical day ward with 24 beds will shortly be closed for two weeks and will return with only eight of the 24 beds. This means that 30 to 40 day procedures will now be reduced to ten or 13. This is devastating news for the staff, the patients and especially for those suffering on waiting lists, and it arises from the most draconian cuts. In 2009 the hospital had a budget of €104 million; this year that budget is €84 million, a devastating 20% cut. The HSE acknowledges this is one of the best and most efficient hospitals in the country. In what is termed "activity" it has returned 4% over target and is supremely successful, but now it is being hammered into the ground with enormous consequences for the sick and suffering who languish for longer periods on waiting lists. Is the Tánaiste serious in standing over the devastation of this facility — named after a great socialist, James Connolly — and others throughout the country when, as indicated in a reply to a parliamentary question tabled last week, €17 billion in interest payments alone is to be paid to bondholders in Anglo Irish Bank during the next 20 years? That amount is in addition to the €30 billion for the bailout. Is that not absolutely breathtaking? Will the Tánaiste demand the immediate reversal of these cuts to the funding for this critical hospital facility?
Deputy Higgins referred to a circular which, I understand, was issued to staff this morning. I have not seen that circular and I do not know what is in it.
I told the Tánaiste what is in it.
No, the Deputy told me his version of what is in it.
Does the Tánaiste doubt Deputy Higgins's version? There will be plenty more versions in the coming weeks.
Will Deputies allow the Tánaiste to reply?
Deputy Higgins described it in apocalyptic terms and referred to it as devastating.
The Tánaiste is good at using apocalyptic terms. He wrote the book on that subject.
Let us calm down. As the Deputy acknowledged, the Minister for Health assured him on the 24-hour accident emergency service.
Did the Minister say the same thing to the Tánaiste in respect of Loughlinstown hospital?
All hospitals must operate within their budgets. The Government's policy is to ensure that they operate and function in a way that best serves patients.
Not in Galway.
This means that there will be changes from time to time in the way in which services are provided in individual hospitals. It also means that there will be changes in the context of the procedures that will be performed in certain hospitals and not in others. In turn, this will mean that there will be implications in respect of the wards that will be used, the number of beds that will be open in particular units, and so on.
We must consider the overall level of service. Yesterday, the Cabinet sub-committee on health examined the question of how the best service can be provided to patients in a way that is cost-effective and that is capable of being managed as efficiently as possible. This matter must be addressed by the management in individual hospitals, including that at James Connolly Hospital which, as the Deputy indicated, is a fine facility that provides very good services. To represent the situation as though there is some kind of Government agenda with regard to closing down hospitals and hospital services is incorrect. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Government is seeking to ensure that patients are provided with the best possible hospital and health services within the limited resources available.
There are 50 people on trolleys in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.
I said nothing about closing down the hospital. The Tánaiste waffled around the issue. What happened to the outrage he expressed when he sat on this side of the Chamber——
The Deputy was in Europe at that time.
——regarding the devastating effects of health cutbacks, the suffering of individuals on waiting lists and the fact that working class people and those on middle and lower incomes cannot afford private health insurance? What happened to the Tánaiste's concern for them? The fact is that the budget is set in an arbitrary manner. A cut of €20 million in the hospital's funding will be devastating. There is no point in the Tánaiste referring to the overall level of service and hinting that perhaps some other hospital — for example, Beaumont — can provide what is required. Beaumont and the Mater are already under the most devastating pressure. The position is apocalyptic for those awaiting hospital procedures at a time when there has been a wholesale reduction in the level of services. This gives rise to grievous suffering and places huge pressure on staff.
Will the Deputy ask his supplementary question?
I remind the Tánaiste that the doctors in Blanchardstown, who take their responsibilities very seriously, have delivered in terms of the work they do. They have written to local public representatives, including the Ministers for Social Protection and Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputies Burton and Varadkar — who are betraying the hospital — and stated that they cannot guarantee that it will be safe to continue to provide services in light of the level of cuts envisaged.
I again ask the Tánaiste whether he will recalibrate the balance, stop paying some of this disgusting interest to European gamblers and reverse the cuts in funding to James Connolly Hospital and other facilities throughout the country. James Connolly Hospital is critically important to people in large parts of the greater Dublin, Kildare and Meath areas.
I have to I agree with Deputy Higgins on this one.
I assure Deputy Higgins that I feel exactly the same way today as I did this time last year or ten years ago——
The Tánaiste thinks differently though.
——with regard to the necessity to provide the best possible care for people who become sick and who require hospital services. We must provide that care within the resources available to us.
So the Government has decided to introduce cuts in the area of health so that we might pay the bondholders and pay interest to the jackals in Europe.
The Deputy asked his question and he should wait for the Tánaiste's reply.
The Deputy should stop his populist claptrap.
This is too much. The Deputy's claptrap is competing with the Tánaiste's rhetoric.
The Tánaiste has the patent on it.
It was the Tánaiste's claptrap 12 months ago.
Deputy Higgins's solution is that we should stop paying the interest. He should realise that one pays interest on money one borrows. If one stops paying the interest, one will no longer be able to borrow. If Ireland were in a position where it could no longer borrow, how would we keep the hospitals open? What would be the position with regard to hospital services in such circumstances?
This is economics 101. The Tánaiste has taken a crash course in economics in the past eight months. This is unbelievable. The Tánaiste deserves an Oscar for his performance.
Deputies should be quiet.
The idea is that we can have great hospital services if we stop paying the interest on our borrowings. If we stop paying the interest we will have no money to run hospital or other services.
Deputy Higgins could not be that stupid.
Is that what the Tánaiste said when he was on this side of the House?
Let us deal with reality.
Of course the Tánaiste is like the——
What is Deputy Ferris saying? We cannot hear him.
We must provide the hospital services of the best possible quality. This means that we will be obliged to change the way in which some of our hospitals are run——
And close them.
——and the way in which some hospital services are delivered. Those changes are being made. In addition, the Government is committed to the most radical reform of the health services ever seen.
Yes, close more beds. That will be radical all right because there will be no patients.
It is also committed to the introduction of a system of universal health insurance which will ensure that people will have access to a decent health service and decent hospitals and that the best quality of service will be provided at James Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, and at every other hospital in the country.
And Roscommon.
That will happen——
Not by the closure of wards.
——not through making the type of broad-ranging, grandstanding statements which Deputy Higgins tends to utter.
Which are similar to those the Tánaiste made six months ago.
It will be done by the Government doing its job in the context of ensuring that the economy will recover and that the reforms that will deliver the best quality of service to patients and others will be introduced in the health service and the public service in general.
Mary Harney could not have made a better speech.
Frankfurt has won out again.
The Tánaiste sounds like Mary Harney.
He sounds like Jean-Claude Trichet.
When Deputies have settled down, we will proceed to the Order of Business. Thank you, Tánaiste.