Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I am sorry the Minister is not here to hear this.

The difference between Orla Tinsley and the dodgy developers whose loans are being taken on by the taxpayer is not just that she is courageous and that she has cystic fibrosis. It is that she has become a household name and they have not. We all met Ms Tinsley outside the Dáil last week. She said she was sick of having to expose her personal life and her health in public again and again, having to talk about her friends who are now dead, and having to fight battles they thought they had already won. This is the kind of country we are in now. A solemn promise made by the Government to deliver a vital health unit at an agreed time can be casually cast aside. It might be delivered a year later if the private sector is so minded. Ms Tinsley knows that if the unit is to be in place in 2011, she will probably have to go out again to tell people about the reality of hospital stays for CF sufferers.

People who are sick are among the little people in this country who have to take the knocks. On the other hand, those who took out large loans from the banks to make more money than they already had - which was more than enough already - and got caught in the property crash remain anonymous. If they continue to live a high life while the taxpayer takes on their bad assets, we will not know about it, because we will not know who they are. They are unlikely to have to plead their case outside the Dáil as the CF sufferers did. The hurt they will suffer is on their "first call equity", according to Peter Bacon this morning on "Morning Ireland". I do not know what that means, but I doubt it will hurt as much as the pain of those who wait in the health system, including those with CF. I do not think the Government understands how angry the public are as a result of this. We need a new Ireland in which these people are proportionately included in sharing the pain.

I commend Deputy Reilly and Fine Gael on tabling this motion, which is very important not just for those who have CF and their families, but for the kind of Ireland we want to live in, where promises are kept and where those who need the health services to deliver the best of care to them do not have to take to the streets. I am thinking of the husband of the late Ann Moriarty, who will have to face the media later today when the report into her death and Ennis General Hospital is published, or Susie Long, who first went on the airwaves under a false name because she did not want to be publicly exposed but subsequently felt obliged to. I am also thinking of Rebecca O'Malley and many others who have had to fight for their rights and for the recognition of their needs in the health service, while other people who have bled the country dry can stay anonymous. This is appalling, and many people in Ireland are beginning to wonder what we have become. This debate is central to the issue.

Deputy Shatter quoted his question of 31 January 2008 to the Minister. I also had a matter on the Adjournment that day, and the response, delivered by the then Minister of State, Deputy Devins, was exactly the same as that read by Deputy Shatter. When I was making my contribution that evening I asked for a definite commitment to the building of a special unit, and the Minister of State gave a solemn promise that it would be delivered within the 24-month timeframe. That promise was not delivered.

While we welcome what the Minister has said, we share the scepticism of cystic fibrosis patients, who do not know whether they can believe that this new commitment will be delivered upon. Sufferers of this condition are vulnerable enough without having to worry about whether adequate facilities are in place to provide the treatment they will need throughout their lives.

We have been reminded in recent days that Ireland has the highest incidence of cystic fibrosis in the world, as well as the worst strain of the disease, but that our treatment facilities are among the poorest in Europe. I thank the Minister, Deputy Harney, for putting on record the commitment to introduce a screening programme for newborns, for which €1.6 million has been provided by the Health Service Executive in its 2009 service plan. However, those of us who deal with health matters are aware of instances where money has been set aside for new developments in areas such as palliative care, mental health provision and disability services only for that money to be subsequently used for other purposes. We will watch carefully to ensure the promised screening service is delivered.

In the course of my contribution on 31 January 2008, I referred to the views put forward by Dr. Gerard Canny of the cystic fibrosis unit at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin. Dr. Canny has called on several occasions for the introduction of a screening programme, which he observed was in place in Northern Ireland since 1983. In a letter to the newspapers on 31 January, Dr. Canny argued that what is needed is a continuum of care from babyhood to adulthood, with treatment provided by multidisciplinary teams and patients cared for in dedicated inpatient wards with single ensuite rooms to prevent cross-infection.

The Cystic Fibrosis Association has stated in recent days is that unless a stand is taken on this issue now, there can be little hope that the required facilities will be put in place in Galway, Limerick, Cork, Waterford, Castlebar, Drogheda and Dublin. There is much scepticism about the promise made by the Minister and reiterated today, mainly because the initial commitment will not be fulfilled within the agreed timeframe and the fulfilment of this new promise will be dependent on the good will of the private sector in accepting a payment arrangement devised by the Minister and the Health Service Executive.

This is not the way we should deliver public health services, particularly for people as vulnerable as cystic fibrosis patients. There is no certainty for these patients, a point emphasised by Orla Tinsley in her response to the latest development. She began her statement by thanking the Minister, Deputy Harney, but went on to describe "mixed emotions of relief and uncertainty". This uncertainty must be a feature of our response to any promises given by the Minister. She has already broken her initial promise to cystic fibrosis patients; she broke her promise regarding the introduction of a HPV vaccine; and she has broken various promises in regard to mental health services and services for people with disabilities.

Therefore, while we welcome the indication that the promised unit will be delivered, albeit a year later than originally promised, the problem is that we cannot be sure this will be done. People with cystic fibrosis, whose lives are threatened on a daily basis by their illness, can have no certainty in this regard. In her articles, Orla Tinsley describes in detail what it is like to go into the accident and emergency unit of a busy acute general hospital and to be told that no isolation beds are available and that she must endure the threat of cross-infection. Cystic fibrosis patients are terrified to be in hospital but equally terrified not to go to hospital because the nature of their disease is such that hospital care is necessary at times of acute illness.

I fail to understand how it has come to this. The Minister offered an explanation today when she spoke of consultation on the design of the unit. This is the first I have heard of it. Why has this suddenly been placed on the table? Whatever the reason for the delay in the provision of this vital service, what is equally disturbing is the casual manner in which the change of plan was communicated. Included in a raft of documentation delivered to the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children in response to a range of queries was the casual revelation that, after all, the Health Service Executive did not expect to be able to deliver on its promise until at least 2011. This shows callous disregard for the effect of this information on those whose lives are directly affected by it. I reiterate our strong support for the Fine Gael motion. Cystic fibrosis patients deserve better than this.

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