Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I compliment the Labour Party Members on introducing this important motion. They are to be congratulated on bringing it to the floor of the Dáil.

People with brain injury are being forced to go through drudgery, but there is no case to be made against investing in the necessary beds. A delay of even two weeks in treating acquired brain injury cases is too long because it is remarkable what medical science can do under the right circumstances. Can one imagine the trauma for the families concerned who are told that nothing can be done for their son, daughter, father or mother? All they will get is a monthly assessment for a year or two. I was informed by representatives of BRÍ that for every one person admitted, at least three other urgent cases cannot find the required beds. One must imagine the personal problems involved for such families, including financial hardship and acute pain. They visit a hospital every day but nothing can be done for their loved ones. As they did not make the financial arrangements in time over the years, they know it is unlikely their loved one will ever get into the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire. Even if they do, it will be delayed by six months or a year and great damage will be done as a result. How can one expect any politicians, whether on the Government or Opposition benches, or the public to say the Government has done well on this topic? If the Minister thinks she is doing well, she is even more foolish than she looks. It is an outrageous carry-on because we know this can be ameliorated from the medical point of view. In so far as medical science is concerned, we know this is a win-win situation.

If the families of young married men or women with acquired brain injury were listening to what the Minister and Minister of State had to say, they would be absolutely disgusted. We are having this debate on behalf of such people. I compliment organisations such as Headway, BRÍ and the Irish Heart Foundation which have done a wonderful job on behalf of those who are least able to help themselves. If we have any social conscience left we should do something about this matter. The next time the Minister for Health and Children speaks I hope it will be possible for her to announce arrangements for extra beds at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, which is one of the best in Europe, a long time before 2012 or 2015. I sincerely hope the Minister and Minister of State will take seriously what we have said tonight, otherwise it will come back to haunt them. I guarantee that.

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