Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Tá mé ag caint i bhfábhar an rún a mhol Sinn Féin aréir. Iarraim ar na Teachtaí eile vótáil linn ar an ábhar tábhachtach seo. I call on all Deputies, but especially those from constituencies that will lose health services and accident and emergency units and those who made election commitments, to stand with their constituents and support the Sinn Féin motion. I commend all those who are campaigning to save their accident and emergency units and commend the people who are outside in the rain calling on their Teachtaí Dála anseo to stand with them. Thaistil gnáthdhaoine ó Ros Comáin inniu ag impí ar an Rialtas gan leanúint leis na ciorruithe seo agus gan airgead á bhaint ó othair faoi chúram chroí.

The scale of the crisis in the health service and the refusal by Fine Gael and Labour to stand by communities is staggering. I offer some fraternal advice to colleagues opposite. As people are now too wise, they should be careful about the old trick of pretending to be in government and opposition at the same time. They are part of government and they cannot defend, argue and place themselves on action committees locally and then be part of decisions that, for example, result in the closure of the accident and emergency unit in Roscommon. This is especially true of Labour Deputies who are acting in total contradiction to the general election commitment of their leader to reverse any cuts in Roscommon County Hospital.

The previous Government oversaw local hospital services bring stripped from local communities. Tallaght Hospital, which has the largest accident and emergency unit in the State, was described recently by the Dublin city coroner as a dangerous place. The hospitals in Monaghan, Nenagh, Ennis and Dundalk were decimated by Fianna Fáil. Louth County Hospital is an example how this operated. The children's ward was the first to go, followed by the maternity unit and then the gynaecological unit. As these services were reduced and undermined, it impacted on Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. Despite the efforts of a wonderful staff, that hospital cannot cope with the demands being made of it. This tactic of removing one medical service and then using the absence of that to justify the closure of other services is being cynically used by the HSE and Government.

Roscommon is the focal point today. Where will it be next week, next month or the following month? The Government seeks to excuse all this by claiming there is no money. However, today the Government handed €10 million to unguaranteed bondholders in a busted bank, Anglo Irish Bank. The money is there and it cannot blame Fianna Fáil for that; it is a Government decision. Politics is a matter of political choices and today the Government chose to give away €10 million of taxpayers' money instead of investing it in these threatened hospital services. Tá an Rialtas ag tabhairt airgead na gcáiníocóirí do bhaincéirí dona nach bhfuil fiú aithne againn orthu. I still find it hard to absorb this. On 2 November the Government will hand €703 million to senior unguaranteed bondholders in the same bank. This is not part of the bank guarantee, any deal or the bailout. The money is being given by the Government out of charity while we have this ongoing crisis in our public services.

I am asking Deputies to stop playing politics with this issue and make a stand. The Minister for Finance has said the next budget will introduce €4 billion in cuts. Will we see health targeted again? Whatever else is happening in the State, citizens need to have some certainty that they will have basic rights upheld by people in this institution. Citizens are making a stand and Deputies need to make a stand with them. I ask the Dáil to back this motion and oppose the cutbacks.

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