Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have two smaller questions before I talk about question No. 16. I welcome the announcement this morning from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda about the 88 new nurses and the 25 new beds. Is extra money being allocated to pay for those or are they coming out of the specific budget already allocated to the hospital?

I want to publicly thank Mr. O'Brien and the team that was involved in the negotiations for the drug Soliris last week. The outcome must have been fiercely frustrating under the circumstances, but the gratitude of the people directly impacted is enormous. In his statement, Mr. O'Brien described being frustrated by the amount of money that had to be paid and the negotiations with the particular company. It might have been lost in translation but it appeared that his frustration was pointed to the patients, as though they were the cause of potential reduction of other services, and I know he did not mean that at all. He might just clear up the record because it caused a little bit of hurt to some of the patients.

The main thing I want to talk about is the response to question No. 16. I say this with respect, but I am sorry that Mr. O'Brien has to answer it because I would have preferred the Minister to answer the question. This committee had six full sessions on end of life and palliative care and bereavement in Ireland the year before last. The discussions spanned 32 oral and 44 written presentations. It involved a substantial amount of work and commitment from this committee to put 37 recommendations to the HSE and to the Minister. With the greatest of respect, the response we got back was far from reasoned, in my opinion. It did not do justice to the commitment, energy and sincerity not just of the people around this table, but of those involved in the area. I genuinely felt it was a cut-and-paste response, which did everybody a disservice. There were one or two things in it regarding the children's palliative care policy which were very welcome. The medical cards for children and adults who have terminal illnesses are, again, very welcome. However, it did not show any strategic thinking or vision whatsoever in this area.

I want to talk specifically about recommendation No. 15, that palliative and end-of-life patients be given a special patient status to co-ordinate the care. This was rejected on the basis that other medical specialists or patients' groups might want the same thing and therefore we might run into difficulties. We all know the vast majority of money that is spent on care is spent in the last year of patients' lives so it is already costly. Some of our initiatives and suggestions were going to save money. With respect, can I ask the Minister - in his absence - and the officials who are here to come back another day and give the work done due respect by going through the 37 recommendations and discussing them with us logically? There may be reasons some of them cannot be done, but I respectfully ask the Minister to give due regard to the ones I know can be done and to put in place some plans for how we will achieve them together.