From Deputy Roy Le Hérissier.
I AM astounded at the Health Minister’s rationale for employing an interim hospital director at £5,133 per week.

According to the minister, he is in the business of delivering rapid change. We have just appointed a new chief executive for the department and I thought it was her job to assess the situation and put a change programme in place. Obviously, a hospital director would be part of that.

To suggest that someone totally unfamiliar with Jersey’s system can come in on a mind-boggling contract and reform the system in six months is stretching incredulity to the limits.

I’m afraid the high-salary culture which people like the Treasury Minister have put in place will come back to haunt us and makes the challenge of selling cuts to the front-line staff and the voluntary organisations very, very difficult, if not impossible. Everywhere else this approach is being challenged and senior-level salary cuts are being asked for.

Evidence, again, of how politically out of touch we are.