Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:"- recognises that the 2011 report of the National Audiology Review Group, published by the Health Service Executive (HSE) in 2011, provides the blueprint for the planning, development and delivery of HSE audiology services, including cochlear implantation;

- welcomes the establishment of the National Clinical Care Programme for Audiology which is overseeing the implementation of that report's recommendations;

- notes the recommendation in the report of the National Audiology Review Group regarding universal newborn hearing screening and welcomes the fact that Universal Newborn Hearing Screening is now in place in three out of four regions in the HSE, with roll-out under way in the fourth region;

- notes that since the cochlear implant programme commenced in 1995 in Beaumont Hospital, over 700 patients have received cochlear implants and welcomes the fact that the hospital carried out ninety cochlear implants in 2012 (42 children and 48 adults);

- recognises that the report of the National Audiology Review Group also included a recommendation in regard to funding for simultaneous bilateral cochlear implantation for children;

- notes that initial estimates of the additional resources required for the further development of the service are being examined in relation to the model of care and costings;

- recognises that within the serious resource constraints imposed by the current budgetary and fiscal conditions, the Minister for Health is committed to prioritising quality, safe care for all patients, including children requiring cochlear implants;

- further notes this Government's commitment to the new children's hospital in the Programme for Government;

- commends the Minister for Health on the establishment of the Children's Hospital Group to oversee the integration of three existing paediatric acute services in advance of the new hospital being built; and

- welcomes the establishment of the National Clinical Programme in Paediatrics and Neonatology and the work it is undertaking to develop a model of care for Irish paediatrics to ensure that children get the right care, at the right time, by the right team and in the right place."

I thank Deputy Mac Lochlainn. I will tell him what I will do when I eventually put my head down and I am no longer involved in politics. I will be able to pat myself on the back and say, "Whatever I did, I did not do it purely to gain political advantage for myself."

We have an enormously difficult budget. Let us be honest about it. It will be a real struggle this year to deliver the types of service we need in terms of what we have available. That all stems from one event, the bank guarantee voted on at 2 o'clock in the morning here, when Members were tired and when the Labour Party pleaded with Sinn Féin not to vote for it. We were told by Sinn Féin's spokesperson that it was a courageous move and to vote for it. The bank guarantee is what has us here. Deputy Mac Lochlainn may not like to hear that, but it is a fact.

The other point I keep hearing about, in particular, from Deputy Mac Lochlainn, is the new politics. However, when I try to practise new politics - I am fairly open about politics and, like the Deputy, do not go in for the party political type at all - Deputy Mac Lochlainn, as he did at the Disability Federation of Ireland event - immediately jumps up and down saying, "U-turn, U-turn." It is not a U-turn; it is being open to change.

We need to get back to the issue at hand, which is about ensuring that young children and their parents have a better shot at life. That is all we ever need and all we ever want, really, for any of our children.

I compliment Happy New Ear. I really do compliment them. I have met them and they are an impressive group of people. I believe they have an argument that is unanswerable. It is an incredible argument. Who, as a parent, would not want it? God knows, each and every one of us who has a child would want that.

The process that needs to take place - I spoke to Deputy Adams in advance of this - was never going to be announced in the budget. That is not how it happens. It needs to be developed and argued in the service plan, and that is what will happen. It is not has if it has not got traction up to this point. The HSE made a priority bid, in terms of both the budget and the service plan process, to the Department of Health in September and had it as a priority issue. I spoke to the Minister for Health before he left the Chamber this morning and said that this was an issue that we had to deal with, and he said it was one of his priorities. We are in there negotiating the service plan to get the best possible result. I am not convinced we will please everyone, but we are in there to get the best possible results. Technology has given these children the opportunity not to be dependent on the State. As someone with responsibility for disabilities, I embrace that because that is something we are trying to do right across the system.

Screening of newborns will ensure that difficulties are picked up at a much earlier age. Approximately 94 cases per year are being diagnosed now. If we insist on newborn screening and we have the technology and the ability - I am not certain about the funding, which I am not promising and which I did not promise to the group when I met them because I, unlike others, for the information of Deputy Martin Ferris, do not promise what I cannot deliver-----

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