Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

The purpose of this Fine Gael motion is to highlight the serious situation that has arisen in the health sector as a result of Government cutbacks and the embargo on the recruitment of staff. I wish to put some questions to the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. How can she and the Taoiseach, who spoke on this issue in the House this morning, say that cutbacks are not having any effect on the health service? How can they say that closing 24 beds in unit 4 in Merlin Park Regional Hospital will have no effect on the health of elderly patients who are all aged over 65? Some of these patients are in their 70s and 80s, and one is aged over 90. This unit was a highly specialised one, catering for the elderly with specialised facilities and the necessary support. The patients will now be dispersed to various wards which are already understaffed and that will naturally have a serious effect of them.

I understand that hospital 2, Merlin Park, which has over 20 orthopaedic beds in a rehabilitation unit, is also threatened with closure. I read this as a deliberate attempt to run down Merlin Park Hospital, perhaps with a view to selling off some of the land, as was promoted a few years ago but resisted by myself and the people of Galway.

How can the Minister say that the Government cutbacks will have no effect when the service for breast cancer patients has been cut from five to two days at University College Hospital, Galway? How can the Minister and the Taoiseach say that patient services will not be affected when 40,000 people are on waiting lists for hospital treatment and thousands of people, the number of whom are unknown, are waiting for appointments to get on waiting lists. Currently, 12,000 adults are more than six months on waiting lists and 2,200 children are more than three months on waiting lists, all this despite promises before the general election that no one would be more than three months on a waiting list.

I will confine my questions to examples of how the cutbacks and embargoes are affecting services for elderly people in Galway, but these examples apply to any part of the country. I will give the Minister one more example of how people are suffering and I would like an answer in response. I dealt with a case recently of a man in County Galway who is looking after his mother in her own home. This woman is in her 80s. He had the benefit of a home help service for eight hours per week. One of the home helpers retired so his service was cut to four hours per week. Despite my best efforts and unbeknown to HSE personnel dealing with this case, I was told last week that a home help could not be recruited and that the woman need not bother coming in for an interview because there was an embargo on the recruitment of staff. This elderly woman may now have to go into residential care, all for the saving of €40 or €50 per week. The members of the Government should be ashamed of themselves. How can I explain to this man that a saving of €40 or €50 a week is denying him four hours per week of home help to enable him care for his mother?

The Taoiseach said this morning that the expenditure in the HSE must be cut back. How can the HSE book a hotel for interviews for middle management staff and interview 200 applicants when it cannot interview one person to provide a home help service for four hours per week? I am sure the Minister does not have a answer to that.

How can the Minister justify this situation when the Government has wasted so much taxpayers' money? The Taoiseach said we must save money. We wasted €50 million on e-voting machines over the past four years and it costs us €700,000 a year to store them. How could the Department of Health and Children spend €150 million in 2005 on the PPARS computer system, which was estimated to cost €8.8 million but ended up costing €150 million before the project was suspended? How can the Taoiseach spend €600,000 per year on special advisers? Is it true that they are hired to write positive spin for the Taoiseach every Sunday in the Sunday Independent?

How do I explain to the man who is seeking a home help for four hours a week to care for his mother that the Taoiseach spends €12,000 a year on make-up? Can the Minister answer that question when this man cannot get a home help for four hours a week to care for his mother in his home rather than send her into institutional care? The members of the Government ought to be ashamed of themselves.

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