Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I wish to share time with Deputies Seán Sherlock, Mary Upton, Joanna Tuffy and Ciarán Lynch.

I fully support this motion and congratulate Deputies Kathleen Lynch and Jan O'Sullivan on bringing it forward for debate. At a time when crises and scandals pour out of the health service on a weekly basis, it is important we include in our debates the concerns of those who, because of the nature of their condition, do not hit the headlines yet suffer chronic disability and need constant support.

I will start with a bit of good news. With the health service, every report published seems to highlight deficiencies, loss of opportunities, mismanagement, delays and patients' pain and frustration. Yet at times, when appropriate provision is in place, patients can benefit enormously. Since tabling this motion, the Labour Party has received much correspondence. One e-mail described how the life of a young Kilkenny man with acquired brain injury has been transformed for the better. His sister writes:

At the age of 23 he needed 24-hour care and specialist medical people to look after him. My family could not give him this care. Our family had to fight for everything that he got. There always seemed to be resistance from the health board in looking for care for him. This was our problem and not theirs. They were ignorant people who hid behind their desks and would not meet our family face to face.

The good news is that a voluntary body, the Peter Bradley Foundation, understood this young man's needs and stepped in to give him a chance of independent living and a real future.

In her e-mail, the man's sister points out that despite his terrible injury, which he acquired when he was only eight, he cannot claim disability allowance because of a compensation award he received. She has asked that this issue be raised in this debate because the refusal is based on a formula that is unfair and does not recognise that this young man would be only too delighted to work. He cannot do so because of his head injury.

It is remarkable that we do not know how many people living in Ireland have a brain injury. If we compare our population with that of other countries, we can very roughly estimate that somewhere between 9,000 and 11,000 people are so affected. Many of those suffer brain injury as a result of stroke, a condition for which treatment has improved significantly. However, the recently published national audit of stroke care shows our health service is failing patients who urgently need these treatments.

We should have 365 dedicated stroke beds but we have 12. Some 90% of British hospitals have a stroke unit but only 3% of Irish hospitals — one hospital — has a stroke unit. The rehabilitation centre on Rochestown Avenue, Dún Laoghaire, provides an excellent service for patients but they are often forced to wait an inordinate period of time for vital rehabilitation, for which they pay a price. As a result, the health service has acute beds that cannot be used by anybody else. It is incredible that after 11 years of unprecedented economic success, we are still waiting for that new hospital, which is only now going to planning stage.

This morning we paid tribute to the outgoing Taoiseach and we are soon to elect a new one. I sincerely hope that with the election of a new Taoiseach we will not simply get more of the same. It is time to recognise that the Minister, Deputy Harney, gave this her best shot. Nobody would question her commitment to tackling a very difficult brief. Stubbornness is no substitute for leadership, and an ideological attachment to private health care is simply not providing a solution to the problems we have.

To put it at its crudest, there is no profit to be made from the chronic patient with brain injury. Private health care is interested in the quick operation and turnaround of patients.

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