Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil don Teachta Uí Shúilleabháin.

I support the motion in the name of the Fine Gael Deputies and I urge all Deputies of every party and none to support the motion. A major price is being paid for the misgovernment of this State over the past 13 years, and among those paying heavily are public patients in our health services. They are now subject to savage cutbacks that are closing hospital services, shutting down beds and wards, increasing waiting lists and waiting times, worsening the overcrowding in accident and emergency departments and slashing a whole range of services in the community.

Last Friday, 1 October, the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government began the imposition of prescription charges on medical card holders. The Government claims that these charges are being imposed in order to save money on the State's drugs bill. In fact, the charges typify the perverse economics of this Government, placing a further burden on those least able to afford it rather than tackling the real problem. The real savings are to be made by reducing the profiteering of manufacturers and distributors of drugs and tackling over-prescription and wastage. In addition, the charges are causing confusion and creating another costly bureaucratic nightmare for patients, pharmacists and the HSE.

The so-called rebel backbenchers who have been raising health issues over the summer were happy to trip in behind the Minister, Deputy Harney, and her Cabinet colleagues to vote for the prescription charges Bill on the day before the summer recess, and they have voted for every health cut in every budget since 2007. This week they have a chance to redeem themselves and demonstrate their sincerity in raising the health service crisis in their regions. Then it will be up to the voters to decide whether the real concern of these backbenchers is hospital beds and health services, or Dáil seats.

One of the hospitals mentioned in the motion is Monaghan General Hospital. The removal of services from this hospital, culminating in the ending of acute services on 22 July 2009, has been used as a template for the downgrading of other hospitals. Government and HSE centralisation policy, as well as the tightening regime of cutbacks, including the recruitment embargo, sees hospitals across the State under threat. The latest to fall victim were also in the north-east region - Louth County Hospital in Dundalk and Our Lady's Hospital in Navan. The cumulative effect is to greatly increase the burden on Cavan General Hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.

The north-east region is now the least well equipped to deal with the further savage cuts coming down the line courtesy of this Government. In June we had the closure of the emergency department at Louth County Hospital, Dundalk, and the removal of both the rapid response vehicle and the patient transport ambulance from Monaghan to Castleblaney. In a meeting between union officials and HSE administrators yesterday, it became apparent that the HSE intends to further cut services at Our Lady's Hospital, Navan. Some 13 surgical beds at the hospital are closed from this morning, while the whole of St. Pius's ward is also being closed. The HSE has said there will be redeployment of staff and there may be redundancies.

The Save Navan Hospital campaign is organising a major rally in the town of Navan on 30 October. More than 100 staff on fixed-term contracts in Letterkenny General Hospital have received notice that their hours will be cut by seven hours per week. This is at a time when front line staff and users both say the hospital is full to capacity. The HSE's plan for Letterkenny also includes the following proposals: the closure of one intensive care unit bed - a 20% cut; the closure of the pharmacy; the cessation of all elective surgery until the end of 2010; and the closure of the mortuary at weekends. In the context of recent road tragedies in County Donegal, how would Letterkenny hospital cope in the event of - God forbid - any recurrence?

This is all happening at a time when we have already seen significant bed closures in Letterkenny and Sligo General Hospital over the last 18 months. The so-called overspend at Letterkenny General Hospital is directly related to the cuts in funding to that hospital following budget 2010. Today we also learned that the HSE is to cut its funding scheme which assists 250 cancer patients from Donegal annually with the cost of flights to Dublin for treatment. This project was initiated by the community in Donegal in 1996 and is now in jeopardy due to these heartless cuts. Hospitals across the State, including excellent hospitals such as South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel, which I visited a year ago on 12 October, continue to be under threat from the centralisation policy and cutbacks of the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government.

It is not only acute hospitals that are being targeted. On several occasions I have raised the case of the public nursing home at Loughloe House in Athlone, which the HSE tried to close earlier this year. Thankfully, due to a campaign by the local community, this facility remains open, but it is still under threat. It is feared by people in Wicklow town that Wicklow District Hospital, which provides long-term and respite care for older people, faces the same fate. Respite beds have already been cut. The community has received information indicating that the HSE is planning the closure of the hospital and, as in Navan, a protest march has been organised for this coming Saturday in that town.

The Members on the Government side have repeatedly voted confidence in the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. This is the Minister who said recently that there was no more money for health care in the west while opening a €100 million extension to the private, for-profit Blackrock Clinic, part of the private health care industry that she and her Government colleagues of all hues heavily subsidise at the expense of the public system. It is incredible. We are living through a nightmare in terms of health care provision and delivery systems. If someone had written this in different times we would never have believed it possible. However, that is the way it is, and the dark clouds that descended over the community I am proud to be part of and to represent in the House have now spread to many other locations across the State, just as we forecast at the time. My sympathy goes out to each one of those people, those families, and those communities at this time. Something must be done.

I commend hospital and health campaigners across the country, and I urge people campaigning on health issues in the regions and nationally to keep up the pressure, particularly on Government-supporting Deputies, not least those who have allegedly taken a stand of concern for their communities with regard to the ever-diminishing delivery of hospital and health services. I hope this people-led effort will help to hasten the departure of a regime that has caused major hardship in our public health services and great distress for people across the State.

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