Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)

I thank the Chair for the opportunity to speak on this motion. It is important when talking about the health service that we have a vision and plan for its development. The health service belongs to the people, the taxpayers and citizens of the State. No-one should hold the high moral ground in debate on the health service nor should the issue be used as a political football. It is important to point out that the majority of Deputies and Senators support the health service and health service staff who do their best to improve the service.

When I was elected in 2002, it was as a member of the independent health alliance which aimed to support reform, investment and change in the development of the health services. During debates in recent years I have been critical of the faults of the health service, but at the same time I have strongly supported the issues and sensible proposals made by Deputies, particularly my colleagues the Independent Deputies, for the development of the health service.

We must have strong legislation and do our best to assist and protect whistleblowers. By whistleblowers I mean people with a genuine grievance or who have recognised something wrong with regard to practices in the health service. I am not talking about cranks and accept we need to be very cautious about false reporting. On the amendments, it is going too far to talk about imprisonment. This is too harsh as fines are adequate to deal with the situation.

Our focus must remain on patients in the overall debate. We must declare it is unacceptable to have patients on trolleys in accident and emergency units, particularly in a country awash with money. Many policies are emerging in the run-up to the election as people want to give away more money. Patients are still on trolleys after ten years of this coalition in Government. That is not acceptable to me, to the doctors, the ancillary staff, the consultants or the nurses. We need reform and investment and this Government must wake up to the reality that we need more beds to provide proper services for patients.

We must continue to develop community care, particularly for general practitioner services. I welcome the recent developments especially on the north side of Dublin because we need quality services to assist accident and emergency services. We must also develop specialist services. Some of the best doctors and nurses on the international stage work here. They entered the profession to save lives and help patients and we should give them our maximum support. They in turn have a responsibility to realise they are working for the taxpayers and need to respect citizens when it comes to change and development, and reform of the health services generally.

I received an e-mail from John Edwards on 5 February last, from the United States, in which he states we must stop using phrases such as access to health care which mean less than universal care and which person, family or child we are willing to leave behind without the care they need. We need a universal solution. This is relevant to today's debate because we need a quality health service and long-term plans to develop that. We should not be afraid of studying and learning from countries which have excellent services and a broad vision of society. I encourage the Minister of State to develop services for people with disabilities who are often forgotten.

Rushed legislation is always dangerous as we should have learned from the past. We all want a quality health service and we should support that demand.

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