Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I move:

"That Dáil Éireann,

aware of:

the fall in the number of acute hospital beds in Ireland up to 2001;

the fact that over 40,000 elective operations have been cancelled in the past two and a half years;

the cancellation of emergency surgery due to lack of ICU and HDU bed capacity at St. James's Hospital;

the fall in the percentage of people eligible for medical cards;

the shortage of consultant, specialist and general practice doctors; and

deploring the Government's failure to reform the health service to enhance the quality of services and achieve better value for money;

calls on the Government to commit to excellence in the quality of care, fair access on the basis of medical need, and efficient use of resources by inter alia:

beginning immediate planning for an additional 2,300 hospital beds;

scrapping the Ministers plan to build private hospitals on public land;

extending medical card coverage to 40% of the population; extending GP-only cards to all children under five, who are not covered by a medical card;

introducing health insurance for all children up to the age of 16 — including an element of free GP care for children from 5 years upwards;

beginning reform of health funding so that the money follows the patient;

making progress on the appointment of 1,500 new consultants, with a corresponding reduction in the number of junior doctors in general specialties, until a better balance is achieved;

implementing the Fottrell report on medical training to expand the number of doctors in training;

expanding community support services for elderly people to live independent lives as far as is practicable;

providing at least 1,500 additional convalescence, rehabilitation and long stay community beds to meet current and future needs with 600 of these beds based in Dublin; and

increasing the number of home help hours."

I wish to share time with Deputies McManus, Crawford and Enright.

See this speech in context