Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will begin my contribution with a quotation.

I spent half an hour outside the gates of Leinster House today with parents of disabled children who are having their respite services removed ... It is very clear that these parents are under terrible pressure. Due to a penny wise, pound foolish HSE initiative, which the Minister approves, they will lose their respite care. Parents who are getting on in years cannot cope without it and will give up, much and all as it will hurt them to do so, and these children will end up in full-time care, costing the State many multiples of the money required to provide respite care.

Those are the words of Deputy James Reilly, then Fine Gael health spokesperson, speaking in this House on 7 July 2010. This is the Minister who, with his Cabinet colleagues by means of budget 2013, has cut the respite care grant, in one of the meanest attacks on the vulnerable in many years. The Minister is also trebling prescription charges for medical card-holders. The quotation I have cited was from the debate on the Bill introduced by the former Minister, Mary Harney, to impose prescription charges.

In that debate Deputy Reilly also stated:

The Bill is vehemently opposed by the Opposition with good reason. It will be aimed at the most vulnerable, sickest and weakest in our society. [...]


Anything that discourages people from taking their medicine results in them falling ill, developing complications and having to attend hospital, often being admitted. A single day in hospital more than wipes out the cost of drug treatment for an entire year for the vast majority of people. These might be savings in theory but, as has so often happened previously, they might transpire not to be savings at all. [...]


This 50 cent charge might not appear to be much to the Minister or me, but it is for many low income families. International research shows that any disincentive for people to take medicines should be avoided, as certain patients will inevitably end up in hospital.

Every word of this is as true today as it was on 7 July 2010, yet the Minister has increased the charge from 50 cent per item to €1.50 and has increased the monthly maximum to €19.50, in addition to increasing the drugs payment scheme limit to €144. A Government that repeatedly trumpets its belief in the crucial role of primary care in our health system has undermined primary care with this rise in drugs charges for patients.

Last week the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, claimed in a radio interview that the Labour Party did not commit to the reversal of the prescription charges. That is not true. In Labour's "Plan for Fair Health Care", published on 8 February 2011, it is stated:

Medical card holders qualified for free drugs until this Government introduced a 50 cent per item prescription charge in 2010. Labour in government will remove this charge.

This was less than two years ago. Last Wednesday, Labour's commitment was blatantly broken. The words of Labour Party health spokesperson Deputy Jan O'Sullivan in the debate on prescription charges in the Dáil on 7 July 2010 are still true:

The people who will be affected by it are the poor and the sick and they are not the people who should have charges imposed on them because of the drastic situation in our public finances. They are the very opposite of those who should have to pay.


The Bill copper-fastens the inequalities in our society.

I pointed out in that debate that when Government representatives were challenged, their main argument was that the charge was one of only 50 cent per item and a maximum of €10 per month. I said that was pure deception because the Bill in question empowered the Minister at any time in the future to make regulations to vary the charges. I said we knew that that Minister and future Ministers would increase the prescription charges for medical card holders and I predicted that would happen if the Bill were passed. Deputy Reilly, who is now the Minister, agreed with me on the floor of this House, pledging to reverse the charge. Of course, the then Minister, Ms Mary Harney, gave no such undertaking. I little thought that, within such a short time, I would be standing here protesting over the trebling of this very charge on prescriptions by the Fine Gael-Labour Government. In opposition, the parties promised to abolish it.

I have gone into detail on this one aspect of the budget because it illustrates clearly that the Government is not only grossly unfair but also grossly dishonest. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, confirmed this by letting the mask slip on "The Week in Politics" last Sunday when asked if he had not violated Labour's election commitment that, by voting for the party, it would protect child benefit. He replied: "Isn't that what you tend to do during an election." Shame on all in government. The Government should go, and go now.

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