Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

The record of this Government with regard to health care is one of betrayal. Time after time, solemn promises made to the people have been jettisoned by the former Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, and then by his successor in that role, Deputy Harney. Meanwhile, patients continue, as always, to wait for treatment, for a bed or for a medical card.

The public is by now aware of the duplicity of the Government. What is less known is the culpability of those Ministers when it comes to the squandering of resources that could have alleviated suffering but were re-directed elsewhere. In 2001 the Taoiseach, with the support of the Tánaiste and her party, introduced, for purely electoral reasons, the over-70s medical card scheme. It was to cost €19 million annually but actually cost €51 million annually. That is bad value for the taxpayer, bad politics and bad health policy. We now have a situation where doctors are paid almost four times more to care for their rich elderly patients as they are paid for caring for their poor elderly patients.

Ever since that Faustian pact was struck with the doctors, the number of medical cards for those who need them most has been dropping. The decline has continued right through the term of office of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, with yet another 5,000 people losing their medical cards since September 2004. Her promise to provide 30,000 new medical cards is a bad joke, one being played out against low-income families who simply cannot afford to see a doctor.

When I raised this issue with the Minister the other day, she said that as people get richer, it may well be that fewer qualify for medical cards. There is something quite ludicrous about that statement when one considers the income limits for medical cards. A single person living alone who earns more than €153.19 weekly does not qualify for a medical card. A married couple with four children does not qualify if the couple's weekly income exceeds €357.20. This is not about people getting richer but about those struggling to survive, and a Government which has cheated them.

The nursing home charges scandal is another example of waste but it seems the Government cannot even acknowledge that fact. In the House, the Taoiseach defended the former Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, by saying that, had the Minister acted earlier, it would have only saved €50 million. The implication was that this amount was only peanuts. However, the Taoiseach is so disconnected from ordinary people that he is unaware of how much difference €50 million would make, for example, to the home help service, which is experiencing cutbacks, or to schemes for people with disabilities. Apart from that, if the Minister, Deputy Martin, had acted when he should have, as much as €500 million might have been saved.

The Government is so used to wasting money it has lost touch with reality. The Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, who lectured the rest of us on standards in public office when she was in opposition, has protected her Cabinet colleague to an unworthy, even despicable, degree. While a civil servant fell on his sword, the incompetence and hubris of the Minister, Deputy Martin were rewarded with a Cabinet position. The Government is not wasting resources alone. A serious undermining of standards of political accountability built up over generations exposes a terrible cynicism residing at the heart of the Government.

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