Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was unfortunately in Cork University Hospital with my father over Christmas. Thankfully he was fine, but we were there for ten hours. My Dad, who is 81 years old, was saying to me, "come on we'll go home." I said, No. I understand people not going. Who would want to sit in an accident and emergency room for ten, 12, 24 hours or longer? One can understand why people would either not want to go or would leave. There is another shocking statistic here, which is that one out of four people put off seeking medical advice because they cannot afford it. There is no way finance should be a barrier to seeking medical treatment.

What can be done to help with that?