Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I express my condolences to the family and friends of Kim Damti. Their heartbreak, grief and immense pain are things no family should ever have to experience. I wish Kim's family, and all of her friends who loved her, strength at these very difficult times. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dílis.

As we turn towards the budget, tá sé soiléir go bhfuil an Rialtas seo i ndiaidh an tuáille a chaitheamh isteach ó thaobh ár seirbhísí sláinte. Cé nach raibh an ghéarchéim inár seirbhísí sláinte níos measa riamh, ní raibh siad mar thosaíocht i mbuiséad an Rialtais.

Our health services are under enormous and unprecedented pressure. Hospitals are persistently and dangerously overcrowded to record levels. Hundreds of thousands of people are on treatment waiting lists. Kids are left in agony and spinal procedures that would change their lives are going undelivered. Children and adolescent mental health services are on the floor, and nurses, doctors and other front-line staff are working under conditions that are so difficult that we have a serious recruitment and retention crisis across the board. The chronic and deepening crisis in health sees so many of our people locked out of the care they need.

Yet looking at the budget, you would believe that the Government thought none of this was happening. At a time when the crisis has never been worse, it beggars belief that health was not a priority for the Government in its budget. Our health service required ambitious investment and a radical plan, one that ensured additional beds and staff so that patients could get the right care right across the system. Instead the Government gave the health service less than half of what it needs just to stand still - not to improve, progress or turn the tide but just to stand still. That is shocking.

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