Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Good. My colleagues have asked questions about nursing. We are facing into strikes in several months time. That is guaranteed unless the Minister can do something about it. I listened to the answers he gave earlier. I admire his energy and respect his capacity, but he cannot be all things to all people and he should not try to be. He will have to be imaginative to solve the issue. On behalf of the Irish people, I ask that he be imaginative now rather than at the last minute. Obviously he cannot reveal all his cards here, but I hope he has a plan in place to deal with what is glaringly obviously facing all of us given the decision on the Garda last week. The Minister can throw out the line it was a Labour Court recommendation and the Government took it, but we all know, and I know, how this works with regard to the Labour Court, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the process by which it came about. The Minister needs to face up to this now to be able to deal with it in several months time. Let us not be back here speaking about planning for the strike and that the Minister has a way to solve it in an imaginative way within the Lansdowne Road agreement, which may or may not be possible. I want the Minister's assurance he is doing this.

Will the Minister guarantee he will come within budget this year? I will be delighted if he does but I would like a guarantee. I welcome the winter initiative and I have spoken to the Minister about it. In fairness, he discussed it in a good bit of detail with me in advance and I respect him for this.

We have a huge problem with home help hours. Will the Minister consider looking at a reallocation for this in the budgetary arithmetic? Financially there is huge value in it. I know from speaking with many of those working at senior levels in the HSE that they believe it would be something that could help them quite a bit.

I have a number of questions on maternity hospitals. I am a huge supporter of the national maternity strategy as I believe it is an excellent strategy. We must learn from what happened at Holles Street and in Portlaoise. It is all very well having a strategy, but it needs to be implemented pretty rapidly because of the issues I just referenced, and I would support the Minister on this. Unfortunately we will have issues while the strategy is being implemented. How will it be funded? Can we be innovative regarding how we fund it? I have some ideas I will share on this because we need to think outside the box as to how we will fund it.

Approximately three or four weeks ago, during Question Time in the Dáil, I asked the Minister about the use of private accident and emergency units for public services. He committed to get back to me on it but he has not done so. Will he, through the Secretary General, document the conversations and meetings which have happened in the meantime to show he has taken it seriously? He did commit to coming back to me. It is absolutely immoral and wrong that in 2016 an 85 year old woman can be left on a trolley in a public hospital in the Mater, while 100 yd. down the road there is a private hospital with a vacancy and that we can get into our cars and listen to the same hospital advertising for patients. It is wrong and immoral, and the Minister has a duty to deal with it.

Will the Minister confirm to me no partial or full review of the National Ambulance Service is taking place that will have any negative impact on the provision of the service throughout the country? I raised the particular issue of the mid-west with the Minister a number of weeks ago and he has not reverted to me. Will the Minister confirm there will be no diminution of services, particularly of advanced paramedics, in the country and in the mid-west? Will the Minister confirm this because he committed to come back to me on it?

We have a real issue with GPs. The Chairman is facing a critical issue with Shannondoc in his home county of Clare. The loss of services, particularly in rural locations, is absolutely frightening people. The Chairman and I will face a public meeting on this on Friday week. The services in County Clare are dropping significantly and the Chairman probably knows more about this than anyone. What is the Minister doing to ensure the loss of these services can be prevented or what alternative mechanisms can be put in place? We need a more holistic view on how we can get GPs into rural areas in particular and on how they can provide services.

I welcome the roll-out of community intervention teams and I am a big supporter of them, but we need consistency of approach throughout the country. How can we push this along in a consistent way rather than leaving certain parts of the country lag behind for a long period of time? I welcome the Minister's thoughts on this.

Will the Minister guarantee that medical postgraduate colleges will train enough specialists to provide for the health service and GPs? Will he guarantee to us here and now that issues will not emerge on the corporate governance of these colleges and how they ensure we have the volume of specialists and GPs coming through to meet the needs of the health service?

I am asking this very specific question for a reason.

Finally, will Mr. O'Brien issue a circular to the various regional authorities or HSE groups, if he sees fit to do so, in relation to some kind of consistent approach to the management of their communications? Some regions are using public relations firms and other regions are not. I do not see why some of them are spending taxpayers' money on public relations firms. Will Mr. O'Brien ensure there is a consistent approach here? I believe this is not a good use of taxpayers' money. When public relations are managing HSE regional corporate communications, it creates another layer. I suggest Mr. O'Brien needs to deal with this immediately.