Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I am pleased to support the Minister for Health and his Government colleagues who are committed to ensuring that hospital services are of the highest quality, centred on patient safety and focused on successful treatment. When Fine Gael and Labour went before the people we did so on the basis of a vision for a reformed health service. Those comprehensive proposals have been amalgamated to form a policy for a successful Government. That policy will have the patient at its core.

To the dismay of most people, we have now had a dramatic change in the situation concerning junior doctors. Without these doctors it would be impossible to deliver a service of the highest quality. The Minister, the Department and the HSE have ensured that a recruitment drive will be undertaken to overcome the difficulties that have arisen in recent years. The decision of previous Administrations not to include training for junior doctors as part of their contracts has resulted in this mess. In addition, these roles were not sufficiently attractive. We cannot expect to retain high quality doctors if we do not provide sufficient training for their professional development. There must be a clear path of advancement.

Recently, the quality of nursing home care has rightly been a matter of concern to Members of this House, to the public and, most importantly, to the patients receiving such care and their families. In discussing these matters, everyone in the House relied upon HIQA's reports which were acted upon to ensure patient safety. Now that we have received HIQA reports on certain hospital services that do not suit the short-term political gain or motivations of certain TDs, they choose to ignore them and HIQA is cast to one side. When nursing homes are closed, based on a HIQA report, the actions are applauded, yet the Government has been, and is being, criticised when it acts on HIQA reports regarding hospitals. The hypocrisy would be laughable if it was not such a serious issue.

In the North of our country, Sinn Féin has held the Ministry of Health under Bairbre de Brún. She commissioned a report that recommended "emergency services should be phased out at Whiteabbey Hospital, Lagan Valley Hospital and the Mid-Ulster Hospital". The report went on to recommend that Mid-Ulster Hospital should be replaced with "a local nurse-led emergency unit providing a comprehensive minor injury and illness service". Since then, of course, Sinn Féin has refused to take on the Ministry of Health in the North, thus abdicating its responsibilities. It has avoided the difficult decisions necessary to deliver improved services for all our citizens. Sinn Féin prefers, as it has done here, to stand on the sidelines, shouting and roaring, and playing on people's fears for political gain.

See this speech in context