Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, has bypassed any meaningful democratic scrutiny of the HSE service plan by the Oireachtas by delaying its publication until the last sitting week of the year. As the Taoiseach knows, details of the plan were leaked before the Dáil had sight of it and before it could be discussed by the health committee. All the spin about health cuts, including the spin that cuts affecting medical cards would be smaller than previously signalled, does not impress anyone. I draw the Taoiseach's attention to the case of Merryn Lacey, a four-year-old girl from Donabate who is fighting stage 4 neuroblastoma, a very rare form of children's cancer. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy. Yesterday she had her application for a medical card rejected. There is also the case of Kate McShane, about whom I have talked to the Taoiseach before. She has Down's syndrome and needs long-term medical care. She is still being denied a medical card. What of those profoundly deaf children awaiting bilateral cochlear implants? I welcome cautiously the fact that €3.2 million has been allocated for them, but that sum is actually less than what is required. Does the Taoiseach accept that the only valid test of the HSE service plan - whenever we get around to discussing it - will be whether it results in these citizens getting the treatment and service to which they are entitled? Receiving the service is their right. Could the Taoiseach assure parents of seriously ill children and every other sick citizen that the HSE service plan will be such that they will get the treatment they deserve?

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