Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will begin by expressing my solidarity with the people of Cork and west Waterford who have been impacted so severely by the flooding yesterday. I will return to this later. I want to raise the issue of healthcare spending. Last Tuesday the Government presented a "Once upon a time, in a land far, far away" sort of budget that was full of gaps with dodgy estimates. It has been exposed in many ways as a work of fiction. Nowhere is this clearer than in the health spend. The Government announced a health budget with a €2 billion hole in it. Bernard Gloster, the CEO of the HSE, has said the moneys allocated to the health service in the budget are inadequate and the funding is not sufficient to meet the expected demand for health services. This is very serious.

The front page of today's edition of the Irish Independentreveals that Government Deputies are apparently less worried about the substance of Mr. Gloster's concerns than they are about the very fact he stated them at all. These concerns are very real. It is extremely serious that the Minister for Health has announced a recruitment freeze during an acknowledged staffing crisis. This is a hammer blow to all those who work in the HSE who tell us how under-resourced they are. It is a hammer blow to Bernard Gloster who says that patients will be harmed without the recruitment of additional staff. Most of all, it is a hammer blow to the people of Ireland and those who are now wondering whether they will have access to health services if and when they need them.

The freeze on recruitment is outrageous. Having begged doctors, nurses and healthcare workers not to leave us for Australia and other places, the Government has effectively turned around and said never mind that. This week HIQA reported that staffing in hospitals such as St. James's Hospital and Mercy University Hospital is at a critically low level. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, is warning us that the recruitment freeze will send the healthcare system into freefall. Adding insult to injury were the comments of the Taoiseach in the Dáil on Tuesday, when he played down what he termed "talk" of a recruitment and retention crisis, one that we all hear about all the time in our constituencies.

The Tánaiste's Government's refusal to return to the rest of us here on Earth is evident throughout the budget on health. More than 4,000 patients may be unable to access potentially life-saving treatments next year due to the decision not to provide dedicated funding for new drugs. We know that more than 6,000 people throughout the country are desperate for access to home care due to a lack of carers available. Almost 900,000 people languish on some form of health waiting list, more than 100,000 of whom are children and young people.

Today we heard at the Committee on Public Accounts, under questioning from Deputy Kelly, that the new children's hospital is drifting further and further out of reach with a projected spend now of €2 billion. The blame lies squarely at the feet of the Government. Most galling of all is that we do not know who is responsible for the shortfall in funding. Is it the Minister for Health or the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform? Will the Tánaiste explain whether the Government can ensure safe staffing levels through the winter? What plan is there for the health service to ensure that sick people who present at hospital will not be left on trolleys or sitting on chairs?

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