Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

What happened to the promise made by the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, of 1,5000 additional hospital beds? He announced it on three occasions. That promise has melted away like snow on the ditch. It seems that the Minister was hung out to dry by a Government that has backed his incompetence every step of the way. It is clear to everybody that the Minister is out of his depth. He has no real plan to transform our health services and makes it up as he goes along.

What does the Government's failure to provide the necessary investment in health mean in plain terms? Let me break it down. There is no additional money for national strategies to improve cardiac, cancer and maternity services. There is no additional money to cut the cost of healthcare. There is no additional money for new medicines and therapies for patients with cancer. There is very little, if any, additional money for mental health services and child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. As section 39 and other workers prepare to strike next week, there is no guarantee of addressing pay inequality for those who care for our most vulnerable. Incredibly, as the Government breaks new records with hundreds of people on hospital trolleys daily, it has not provided for a single additional hospital bed anywhere in the State.

This budget is a disaster for our health service. It means the crisis in our health service is going to continue. Chronic waiting lists will continue. Overcrowding will continue and the Government has made sure of that. When things in hospitals get bad this winter, and when they get worse again next winter, the Government should remember why it is happening. It is happening because of the Government's choices. That will be why it is happening. The Government had an alternative. Sinn Féin put forward a plan to deliver extra beds and the resources our hospitals need. What did the Government do? It ignored it.

My question to the Tánaiste, on behalf of his Cabinet, is why the Government decided to throw in the towel on health. What does he say to the hundreds of thousands of people who are locked out of healthcare and who the Government has failed with this budget?

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