Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

This format does not allow a deep penetration and discussion about some of these issues and underlying it is a deeply important philosophical question about the core values of this State. There was a time when the great and the good judged this Republic by how many millionaires we had and people are still scandalised. Every day we hear about HSE and other State agency executives being given large hand-outs. If we are to judge public services by the fact that a child could not be flown to Britain to get a transplant or that people who live in certain parts of this State will not have access to accident and emergency departments and that from next Monday, 11 July, the Government will have closed down or withdrawn many of those accident and emergency services, this is the core issue. A society must be built around these fundamental issues. From the cradle to the grave, wraparound health services must be a fundamental core value of this society. If this Government were to pledge itself to work to this core value, then it would find that people would support the Government in a real way when it tries to measure out the pain we are told all of us must suffer. Only a certain section of people are suffering that type of pain.

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