Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)

I wish to seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to raise a matter of national importance, namely, in view of the vastly increased volumes of non-English speaking non-Irish nationals presenting at hospital accident and emergency units, the fact that their primary illness may be compounded by anxiety, reactions to separation from family and their cultural and ethnic beliefs, their inability to communicate their symptoms to hospital staffs and failure to understand staff members' explanation and advice, the need to avoid delays, misdiagnosis and incorrect medication dosages and the necessity to obtain maximum benefit from hospital health care services, the critical need to provide basic translation facilities in the form of printed documents with admission and discharge instructions, patient care instructions, and disease information in the official EU languages and major world languages for all hospital accident and emergency departments.

See this speech in context