Departmental Functions Dail Éireann — 2020-09-08 ============================================================ Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Dublin Central Continuing on that theme, it is not only the representatives of the Sisters of Charity that the Taoiseach must speak to regarding these workers from St. Mary's, St. Monica's and the Caritas convalescent centre, but also the HSE. Many of these workers have given decades of service and worked right through the Covid-19 pandemic. They were front-line workers who were applauded, if the Taoiseach remembers. By the way, a decade ago when their wages were being cut, there was no doubt or debate about who was the employer of these workers. They felt the full weight of the economic crisis then, but now that they find themselves in the middle of this calamity, they are like orphaned employees. The HSE does not want to know and the Sisters of Charity order does not want to know. The really awful part of this, in addition to the gross personal insult to these workers and the giving of the lie to all the proclamations of admiration for front-line workers, is that this will mean some 200 beds being lost to the system. This is happening when we know we are facing into very difficult times with the flu season, Covid-19, etc. I wrote to the Taoiseach regarding this matter. I have also written to the Tánaiste and to Mr. Paul Reid, CEO of the HSE. There must be an intervention in this case. It is unacceptable on every level. Whether that fits neatly into the ambit of this protocol section of the Department of the Taoiseach is an academic matter, as far as I am concerned. The Taoiseach, as Head of Government, needs to act on this matter. He might also set out for us the peculiar set of circumstances pertaining to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Coveney, acquiring a Garda driver. We got some sense of that before we rose for the summer. If that is the idea of a three-stranded Government working together in harmony, God help us when we see division. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-09-08/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:32+00:00 Sitting date: 2020-09-08