John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

It never fails to surprise me that when politicians start talking about health policy, examples are always put forward of how busy our clinics are concerning health representations. This may be what is wrong with our health system. Is it not funny that when people need information about the health service they go to their politicians rather than their doctor? Politicians, myself included, sometimes encourage this kind of behaviour. It strikes me as going particularly to the heart of what is wrong with our health service.

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I have read the Fianna Fáil motion, which is excellent. There is nothing in it with which I could disagree, if the motion was used for the purpose for which it was tabled, rather than having Senator MacSharry delivering a ten-minute tirade against Government policy. If he had promoted the motion as tabled, we would have been better off.

Senator MacSharry casually stated that if we could find €200 million or €300 million we would be able to protect everyone against cutbacks and reductions in services. Fianna Fáil has repeatedly failed in pre-budget submissions or elsewhere to state where we might find this trifling figure of €200 million or €300 million. Basing an argument on being able to pluck such figures out of the air is an unreasonable and unrealistic proposal.

I note what the Minister of State has said about undergoing a great period of change in our health services. No doubt we would all like to see more resources being spent on older people and the health service in general. However, we are spending almost €1 billion a year on the nursing home support scheme which caters for 22,000 people. That is a major and significant amount of money.

I also note that €315 million has been provided for home help and home care packages. This is a lot of money and some 56,000 people are being supported by these schemes, which are welcome. I would like to see more being done but we are constrained by the economic circumstances in which we currently find ourselves. That is unfortunate.

As the age profile of our population increases there will be more challenges facing us in future due to the strain on resources. It is important to consult all stakeholders on the best way forward. My family recently had cause to avail of the services for older people. I was very impressed with the services provided by a combination of the public, private and voluntary sector. The services offered by the Alzheimer's Society in particular were fantastic. The services of the public health nurse were excellent. One private sector company offered a fantastic home care service. The money paid to that company is all tax deductible, which makes it affordable. Luckily, my family and I could afford the cost, but I am concerned about what would happen and how much more difficult it would be if we were not able to afford such services from the private sector. That is a matter of real concern to me.

There should be some way of drawing together more comprehensively, or in a more co-ordinated manner, the voluntary, private and public health services. That is an absolute requirement. In the end, my relative took advantage of the nursing home support scheme which was a smooth transition from home and community care to residential care. I was impressed by the way it worked. Perhaps we were just lucky but I feel that people in the service do receive a good level of care. Gaining access to the service might be where the real challenges lie.

The Fianna Fáil motion is a good one and I cannot see much in it that I could not support. The Government is elected to make policy and be responsible for it. I may only differ with Senator MacSharry's proposal on a matter of emphasis or focus. If the Government delegated its policy-making and implementation we would probably get a lot of criticism also. Previous governments handed everything over to the HSE to run while trying to immunise themselves from criticism by so doing. That attracted much criticism at the time.

While we will not support the motion as drafted, we are very close to it in terms of policy. Our response to it in the Government amendment is more or less the same. I wonder, therefore, why we found it necessary to move an amendment rather than having an agreed position. Everybody in the Oireachtas and the country at large wants to see the very best services being provided for the elderly.