Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

This Bill is innocuous in theory. That is what it is meant to be because it is part of the PR exercise that now occurs daily in this country. The pretence is that it is but a small imposition that will not be felt by those for whom it is intended. The theory is that it is to generate greater respect for the services we provide, but that will not really be the effect. The Bill will generate even greater despair among a cohort who have been under attack for the past two and a half years. With each passing day, the cohort is attacked with increasing severity and consistency, each time with a more debilitating impact. One must consider this from the point of the view of the individual who may need to have recourse to a medical card or pharmacist, for reasons beyond his control, because he has contracted a particular health problem.

As I stated previously, the HSE has very many dedicated staff. There are many dedicated facilities which have had a particular task over the years. Some of these facilities are not being run to address the issues they were intended to address. I will not elaborate on this. There are facilities all over the country that are not being utilised. Hospital wards and beds have been decommissioned, as have various other facilities that were paid for by the taxpayer and which the taxpayer should now be enjoying by way of just reward. Instead of enjoying them, the public is now being admonished once again in respect of services it does not have and being told it should have respect for a particular service when it gets it. The public fully respects the services that exist and is grateful for them. It is when a service disappears that the public gets worried. That seems to be with increasing rapidity, or on a daily or weekly basis.

I do not want anyone to provoke me into a long rant on this matter. I have held the view for a long time that the HSE is now dysfunctional. We hear the continuous mantra that tough decisions must be taken. Decisions must be taken but they must be the correct ones. Sometimes decisions appear to be tough but they still must be correct. The kind of decision envisaged in the Bill does nothing more than pile more coals on the heads of those who are already being hammered daily. This is unfair and it would be wrong of Members on either side of the House not to acknowledge it.

Over the past two weeks, the consciences of Members on the Government side of the House were troubling them in respect of certain issues. They struggled with their consciences outside and inside the House and struggled within the parliamentary party and on the plinth. Gladly and gratefully, they overcame their consciences; their consciences do not exist any more and that is the sad part. The Bill before us demonstrates this.

All Members know from their constituencies that the people being punished daily can take no more. They have had it up to their eyes. Every time they get out of bed in the morning, if they can do so, they wonder what else is in store for them. They wonder whether they will be able to see and pay through the day and be alive at the end of it. They wonder whether they will be left waiting for a service in a hospital corridor, in spite of the fact that all the services are readily available if they were switched on.

The Acting Chairman will be glad to know I will not use my 20 minutes but I could do so.

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