FINE GAEL has defended its proposals to reform the public service and dismantle the Health Service Executive (HSE), resulting in almost 30,000 redundancies.
Several members of the party’s front bench insisted yesterday the plan to replace the HSE with a universal health insurance system based on the Dutch model would work.
Fine Gael health spokesman James Reilly, enterprise spokesman Richard Bruton and energy spokesman Leo Varadkar were among those who defended the controversial proposals.
They have been criticised by trade union Siptu which has claimed it would result in the HSE being sold off. Fianna Fáil Ministers said it would result in a wholly private health system that would be primarily motivated by profit.
The Fine Gael representatives were responding to party leader Enda Kenny’s interview on RTÉ’s This Week radio programme on Sunday, outlining Fine Gael’s Reinventing Government plan.
Several Fine Gael TDs privately said Mr Kenny’s interview was poor and “weak in parts” and that he had struggled to explain the detail of the plan. One deputy, who did not wish to be named, said Mr Kenny had not been adequately briefed, as was shown by his difficulties in explaining how the Fine Gael plan would create the 28,000 redundancies that are envisaged.
Dr Reilly yesterday said the plan prioritised the protection of frontline services and put the patient first.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland,Siptu health organiser Paul Bell said he had been inundated with calls and text messages from members of his union concerned about the Fine Gael plan.
Under the Government’s proposal announced last week, there would be 5,000 voluntary redundancies in the HSE. Under the Fine Gael plan, however, there were concerns the service would lose even more employees.
Dr Reilly said, however, it was “disingenuous in the extreme” to suggest that 28,000 redundancies would take place in the HSE, when Reinventing Government envisaged a reduction of 30,000 staff across the whole public sector.
Later Mr Varadkar said that putting private money into the system simply meant that everybody would become a private patient. He accepted that it would take four years for the plan to be fully implemented but he said that the Dutch model, on which the plan was based, was ranked as the best in the world by the OECD.
Fianna Fáil Minister of State Dara Calleary said Fine Gael had failed to spell out how the party could achieve almost 30,000 redundancies. He said the health service would become a profit-led system and not patient-led.