Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:1 Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he has any advisers or consultants on health within his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27361/11]
View answerTuesday, 25 October 2011
Questions (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
Gerry Adams
Question:2 Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Taoiseach the number of special advisers he has appointed since his election as Taoiseach; and the salary paid to each advisor. [28190/11]
View answerGerry Adams
Question:3 Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Taoiseach if he will provide a breakdown of the individual responsibilities of the special advisers employed in his Department. [28191/11]
View answerGerry Adams
Question:4 Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Taoiseach the advisers on health he has within his Department. [28545/11]
View answer
Micheál Martin
Question:5 Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Taoiseach if he has put in place in his Department any expertise in relation to health policy. [31045/11]
View answerOral answers (75 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, together.
There are five special advisers in my Department, four of whom are special advisers to me and one of whom is special adviser to the Government Chief Whip. I do not have a dedicated adviser-consultant on health in my Department. A specialist adviser on health was appointed to the Minister for Health and Children of the previous Government but was based in the Department of the Taoiseach and his salary was paid from that Vote.
The primary function of special advisers is to help achieve the Government's objectives and secure implementation of the programme for Government. Under the supervision of my chief of staff, the special advisers working in my Department provide briefings and advice on a wide range of policy matters as well as performing such other functions as I may direct from time to time. They also liaise with other special advisers in other Departments so that I remain informed on developments across Government.
I am circulating in the Official Report a table showing the salary of each special adviser. The total salary cost of the five special advisers is approximately €576,000, which is 47% less than the €l.l million total salary cost of the seven special advisers appointed to the Department of the Taoiseach by the previous Administration.
The names and salaries of the special advisers appointed in the Department of the Taoiseach since 9 March 2011 are contained in the following table:
|
Name and Grade |
Annual Salary |
|
Mark Kennelly, Chief of Staff |
€168,000 |
|
Andrew McDowell, Special Adviser |
€168,000 |
|
Paul O’Brien, Special Adviser |
€80,051 |
|
Angela Flanagan, Special Adviser |
€80,051 |
|
Mark O’Doherty, Special Adviser to Chief Whip |
€80,051 |
My question is specific to the issue of health. Today, 344 people are on hospital trolleys throughout the country. Communities from Roscommon to west Cork to Blanchardstown to Loughlinstown to Tipperary to Galway are outraged because the Government's health policy is in tatters. We have lost 1,000 nurses in the past two years and 6,000 health workers. The number of bed closures climbed to 2,317 in the past few weeks. It is a disaster. Our health service is being massacred. The Taoiseach's Government promised the most ambitious reform programme ever in health care and that there would be no closures of accident and emergency services unless better, and what were seen to be better, services were put in their place.
The Taoiseach needs some advice about what is going on in our health service because lives are at stake. Communities are terrified by the dismantling of their local health, accident and emergency and ambulance services. People have come from Bantry today to protest outside the House about what is happening in west Cork. Who is advising the Taoiseach or is he taking any specific advice on how we will deal with the catastrophe in our accident and emergency and health services throughout the country?
The Deputy's question was specific. He asked if I had any advisers or consultants on health within my Department and if I would make a statement on the matter. I have made a statement on the matter. I have no specific special advisers or consultants in my Department dealing with health. I chair the Cabinet sub-committee on health, which is due to meet again shortly. It will meet every month for the next six months and then review the position. In the past, the Cabinet sub-committee met once every quarter.
I would point out, however, that in a number of hospitals where there was a consistently high and unfortunate number of trolleys over the past years. This has been seriously reduced because of increased competence being put into manage the hospitals. The Minister for Health, who is my chief adviser on health matters, has put together a package for new competency measures to be put in place in respect of the Mid-Western Regional Hospital and University Hospital Galway where, as the Deputy knows, there have been serious overruns in the past.
There is not a simple answer. It takes some time to change that structure but that is where the focus and priority of the Minister lies. We will keep the Deputy updated as decisions are made on this.
The Deputy will also be aware of the special delivery unit which the Minister set up to analyse why these backlogs occur in hospitals in the first place, whether it is due to a virus, a winter vomiting bug, holiday arrangements for cover and so on. These are all areas which have been set out in the programme for Government. The Minister has been clear that we want the very best facilities for, and the very best attention given, to patients in the first instance and facilities to be made available to people working on the frontline to service that. As the Deputy pointed out on a number of occasions in the past, we cannot stand over a situation where independent medical advice indicated that in some cases, safety requirements are not up to standard.
I have three questions. Ba mhaith liom cúpla nóiméad a ghlacadh orthu.
The Taoiseach said he had no health advisers, and it shows. I refer to this notion that it is a winter vomiting bug and so on. It is not winter yet. It is a lack of capacity and a deliberate running down of the public element of our health service.
I was in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda this morning. The Taoiseach may know that last week, a patient who had been on a trolley for five days was found to have TB. Other patients are now being screened for this dangerous disease.
I understand the Cabinet sub-committee on health has met only once and did not meet over the summer. My question on this issue is — with the Ceann Comhairle's permission, I would like to come back in on the other questions — does the Taoiseach accept that overcrowding in our hospitals is dangerous to staff and patients alike? Is there not a need for an urgent response from the Government?
I was in Blanchardstown hospital on Saturday with an Teachta Mary Lou McDonald, an Teachta Richard Boyd Barrett and others. Funding for that hospital has been cut by 20%. Should the Government not put in the extra resources which the health service and the public element of our health service require?
I remind Deputies that this is Question Time. If they could avoid statements, it would be helpful in order to get through the questions.
I could not but agree with the statement that overcrowding in hospital wards is not a good situation.
I did not say it was not a good situation. I said it was a dangerous situation.
As I said, I do not agree it is a good situation, and nobody would. The question was if we are in a position to deliver the best quality health service for the patients who get into the system with the facilities for those who provide that attention. This needs to be done in a streamlined manner so that we do not have this backup and the situation we have had over the years where there are all these trolleys in hospitals. Everybody here has visited hospitals on numerous occasions.
The Deputy mentioned Blanchardstown hospital. There has been enormous public investment in state-of-the-art facilities there. The hospital is central to the delivery of a quality health service. The Minister for Health and his colleagues have been there in the recent past. I do not have the details before me in respect of what is happening at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital today but I am sure if the Deputy raises this as a Topical Issue matter, the Ceann Comhairle might consider it in due course.
I know precisely what is happening in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. As I said, I was there this morning.
I think I selected Deputy Adams for a Topical Issue today.
I am really pleased with that. Go raibh míle maith agat. Is tusa an Ceann Comhairle is fearr sa domhain. Coming back to this issue, one of the anomalies in this State is that the hospital in Blanchardstown is called Connolly Hospital. James Connolly would turn in his grave if he saw the way our patients are being treated. That hospital does not even have an MRI scanner.
In regard to the five point plan, I agree with the sentiment that patients should have full access to proper health care but patients are not getting it. It is unacceptable that so many citizens are on hospital floors, on hospital trolleys and on chairs in hospital corridors.
The Taoiseach has not answered the following question, which has been raised a number of times. My friend, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, has also raised it. There are a number of special advisers in the Taoiseach's Department earning a salary of €168,000 which is almost five times the average industrial wage. I believe the Taoiseach is a decent man but I do not know how he can square that. There are 500,000 people on the dole and 150,000 young people have emigrated but the Taoiseach's Department is in clear breach of the guidelines set down by the Department of Finance. Is that social solidarity? Did the Taoiseach request that the salary cap be breached for these individuals?
I want to assure Deputy Adams that this Government is focused on providing the best level of service that we can for patients and the best level of facilities for people who work in the health service. One of the most modern endoscopy units in the country is in Connolly Hospital.
Deputy Adams was not there.
James Connolly would, I am quite sure, be delighted to know about that unit. The further expansion of the MRI facilities will come. The Deputy understands — he does not live in fantasy land either — that we do not have an endless, bottomless pit of money to provide all of these things now.
Except for the bankers.
Remember this — we would not be in this situation but for bankers and the carry on of an incompetent Government. Be that as it may——
Is that a confession?
We have nothing to confess.
——Sinn Féin's Ministers in Northern Ireland do not appear to have any difficulty with imposing serious austerity in health and other areas right across the board.
Deputy Adams should examine his party's record.
He talks about two different Irelands. We actually have two different Irelands. Sinn Féin is an all-island party, but it has a different view up North from the one it has down here. It does not seem to have any difficulty in agreeing to pretty serious cutbacks in Northern Ireland, but it hums and haws about everything that happens down here when the Government is in a bailout situation, we are not in control of our economic destiny and we must cut our cloth according to our measure.
That is lame. The Taoiseach needs to try a bit harder.
The Sinn Féin Deputies do not like the truth.
Deputy Adams talks about decisions in respect of advisers. I am not at all happy — how could I be? — about the numbers who are unemployed. That is why, through the Departments of Social Protection, Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Finance, we want to put a real emphasis on job opportunities, getting people off the dole and providing up-skilling and retraining opportunities for them so that they can understand and appreciate the dignity of being able to go to work and contribute to their local economies, country and their own well being.
On the one hand, we must deal with the requirements of the memorandum of understanding to get down to 8.6%. In dealing with that challenge, we will put whatever resources we have into providing some sense of confidence in our indigenous economy — small businesses and medium-sized enterprises — to give people opportunities to get off the dole.
The Taoiseach is not answering the question.
In 2009, the cost of seven advisers in the Department of the Taoiseach was €1.085 million. It is now €576,000. Call them what one wills, in my Department there are three of the people in question at the lowest level of the public service scale that applies to them.
They are in breach of the Department of Finance's stipulations.
Two of the others are in excess of that level. This reflects the positions they held previously when they worked within the Fine Gael Party. As I pointed out to the Deputy last week, one of the persons working for a Minister was on a private sector salary of €200,000 and is now on a salary of €129,000 or €130,000 in respect of his or her public duties.
It is important that, when people cover a range of Departments and governmental issues, the Minister of the day has at his or her access people of competence who can inform him or her accurately as to what the situation actually is. The cost is very much reduced from what it was.
It is still in breach of the Department of Finance's guidelines.
In Question No. 5, I asked the Taoiseach whether he had put in place in his Department rather than just in his office any expertise on health policy. I find it incredible that the answer is "No". Given that the Department of the Taoiseach through the Taoiseach chairs the Cabinet sub-committee on health, it is unacceptable that there is no health expertise within the broader Department to inform the Taoiseach's work as chair of that sub-committee and to bring certain perspectives to its work.
The Taoiseach's fundamental difficulty is that he made commitments on health that could not be realised. In recent months, he has broken hospital after hospital. Roscommon is the classic example, but there are examples in Sligo, the orthopaedic hospital in Mallow and the many others in respect of which he made cast iron guarantees through letters and commitments in advance of the election. He has needed to resile from all of them.
At the macro level in terms of the advice and expertise required, the programme for Government contains two fundamental commitments. First, the move to a not-for-profit trust with insurers for every local hospital. This would be a retrograde step. Insurers would deal with hospitals directly to control costs. The Taoiseach mentioned Ennis and Galway. I understand that tenders have been sought for private outside contractors to manage those hospitals. He needs to spell this situation out further. We need a more comprehensive debate, as it is a specific change.
Second, a pathway to universal hospital care insurance was committed to in the programme. I note the word "pathway" has been introduced for the first time. It was never used prior to the election.
Could we have a question, please?
It is a comprehensive and complex issue. The new wording suggests the Government is resiling from its commitment in terms of the timeline and a genuine commitment to the proposal's implementation. It suggests that the Department requires some level of expertise on health to enable the Taoiseach to chair the health sub-committee and to allow these issues to be discussed, if that is his desire.
I can deal with that for the Deputy. Obviously, the special advisers who formerly worked for the party and are now in the Department of the Taoiseach are well able to cover a range of sectors. The economic adviser is up to date with every element of every Department and its budget.
I chair the Cabinet committee on health. It is going to meet next on 10 November. It includes the Tánaiste, the Ministers for Public Expenditure and Reform and Children and Youth Affairs and the Ministers of State with responsibility for primary care and disability, equality, mental health and older people. The chairman and CEO of the HSE also attend, as do senior officials from the relevant Departments. Rather than having an extra bill placed on the public sector and taking in someone to the Department of the Taoiseach, as applied on the last occasion, I deal directly with my own special advisers but also with the Cabinet sub-committee on health. For years, that committee met once per quarter. I was not happy about that and I have informed it that we will meet once per month for the next six months.
It has only met once in the past seven months.
Yes, but the next meeting is on 10 November. To be fair, I accepted the suggestions that came from Deputies about the necessity for a committee on health. I have an interaction with the Minister for Health and his two Ministers of State, who have specific responsibilities, on a regular basis. I do not need to ask for another special adviser to be put into the Department of the Taoiseach to cover health——
I did not say "special adviser".
——when we have access to the people who run it directly. I do not have consultants on health in the Department of the Taoiseach. I do not have a special adviser on health in the Department of the Taoiseach. The people who are there are well able to get the information I need at any time. We discuss all of these matters at the committee on health and will again on 10 November.
I wish to ask a brief supplementary question.
On a point of order——
We are moving on to Question No. 6 in the name of Deputy Boyd Barrett.
I wanted to ask a supplementary question. I did not get a chance.
We have spent 20 minutes on this issue.
I want to ask a supplementary question.
On a point of order, are we not allowed to ask supplementary questions?
I am entitled to a supplementary question.
Deputy Boyd Barrett asked his supplementary question.
On a point of order——
There is no point of order.
Am I entitled to ask——
I did not get a supplementary.
Will Deputy Boyd Barrett resume his seat, please? I have called Question No. 6.
But I did not get to ask a supplementary question.
On a point of order——
Will Deputy Boyd Barrett resume his seat, please?
It is normal practice that I get a supplementary.
The Deputy asked a simple question of the Taoiseach as to whether he had advisers or consultants on health within his Department. He has answered the question. Will the Taoiseach move on, please?
The answer is "No".
I am entitled to ask a supplementary.
It is not ice cream.
Will the Deputy please resume his seat? This is Question Time. It is not a debate on health.
On a point of order——
We do not want a debate, but we are entitled to ask supplementary questions under Standing Orders.
We are wasting time.
I would like to ask a supplementary question on——
Does Deputy Boyd Barrett want his next question answered?
I just want to know whether I am entitled to ask a supplementary question.
No, the Deputy is not allowed to ask a supplementary question——
Why not?
——if it has been answered. Will the Taoiseach please move on?
The Taoiseach was completely silent.
I would like an opportunity to return to this issue at a later stage.
I am entitled to ask a supplementary question.
Members are entitled to ask supplementary questions.
Am I not entitled to a supplementary?
No, you are not.