HSE staff should not be paid any expenses

FINE Gael health spokesperson Dr James O’Reilly said recently that HSE staff expenses will have to be cut.

As the HSE is said to have handed out €292 million on such expenses since 2005, a mere cut will have little effect, particularly as this figure does not even include HSE bonuses.

I would go further than Dr O’Reilly in proposing that all HSE staff should not be paid any travel costs and other expenses.

Many people have to pay their own way to work out of salaries often much smaller than those paid by the HSE.

The cutbacks envisaged by the Taoiseach will also have to be extended to HSE staff, not patients. And those working for a health service such as the HSE should not receive bonuses save in exceptional circumstances.

Isn’t the HSE meant to be committed to putting patients before bonuses for staff?

Health Minister Mary Harney has lost control of HSE expenditure.

As she is so incapable of controlling her own creation, the minister’s own value to the State is as questionable as that of the HSE.

Dr Florence Craven

Maynooth

Co Kildare