Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I wish the Minister, Deputy Cullen, would wait to listen to what is happening to the health service because I would be able to tell him.

There has been a change in the services bringing elderly people, particularly in the west, to their hospital appointments in Dublin. In the past, when things were bad and we had no money, there was respect and support for the elderly and we were able to bring them to hospital appointments.

I got a letter today from the Health Service Executive, western region, about a woman who had a liver transplant two years ago and who has had a kidney transplant. The HSE could not bring her to the hospital for her appointment because it did not the resources. It stated it did not have enough money in the health budget to do that, which is a disgrace.

This is a very serious issue. I will have to bring a few of my constituents to the House to show the Minister of State the type of people who are not getting the service they deserve. We will shortly march to the HSE offices in Castlebar to show it the type of people concerned. If RTE and the media were doing their jobs, they would come to Mayo to see some of the people who have had to cancel their hospital appointments because the HSE has a new policy in regard to bringing people to their appointments in Dublin.

People in north Mayo due to go into hospital for an operation on a Monday must wait until Sunday evening for a phone call from an executive in a hospital to know whether a bed is available. Then they must make arrangements for transport, which they cannot get in the west. The HSE could not bring this woman I mentioned who has had liver and kidney transplants to her appointment. It wrote a three-page letter explaining why it could not do so. It blamed the Minister of State and the Department and stated that there is no funding in place. It said the ambulance service is not there to bring sick people, such as her, to their hospital appointments.

Do we have any respect for the elderly, sick and the weak? Are we going to continue to push the weak and the sick aside? A Taoiseach on a general election campaign did not realise the health service was so bad. However, the people are waiting for the opportunity to vote on this issue.

I heard today about the amount of revenue collected. Deputy Walsh, a former Minister, is in the House and even in the bad old days when we had nothing, we had respect for the sick and the elderly, but now we cannot even bring them to hospital appointments. There is a row going on between the HSE and the Department that the funding is not in place for this service. The weak and the sick are suffering and people must cancel their hospital appointments in Dublin and Galway.

Somebody living in Blacksod in Belmullet lives 80 miles from Castlebar, 150 miles from Galway and over 200 miles from Dublin. People on disability or social welfare only have €165 per week on which to live, yet they are expected to provide transport to their hospital appointments in Dublin even though they are sick. There are hundreds of such people in my constituency and I will shortly bring some of those who are fit to come out to a protest meeting in Castlebar. I will show the people of this country what is happening and what we are doing to our elderly people.

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