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

The speeches delivered by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste yesterday were remarkable for their lack of any vision for a more equal Ireland and for a fairer society. There was a recital of dubious statistics and assertions, repeated over and over to try to convince themselves and the public that there is a difference between the Government's so-called recovery strategy and that pursued by the Fianna Fáil Government before it. The Fine Gael-Labour Government is trying to sell a spurious narrative that the austerity programme it adopted when it came to office is not essentially the same austerity programme imposed by Fianna Fáil before it left office. Of course, it is a false narrative. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party are the Irish troika, the parties of austerity.

In my first contribution to the 31st Dáil, I asked what was the timeframe the Fine Gael and Labour drafters had in mind when they drew up the programme for Government. Their eyes were not fixed on the next five years, let alone the next generation. Their target was Sunday afternoon, 6 March 2011, exactly three years ago tomorrow, when they had to get the document carried at the Labour Party conference. In my view, and the view of many others politically involved and observers of politics generally, that was a day of shame for the Labour Party.

The people voted for change, but Fine Gael and Labour were at one with the outgoing Government on their basic flawed economic strategy, they put it into the programme for Government and then they had the brass neck to call this "a democratic revolution".

Where are we after three years of this so-called "democratic revolution"? We are living in a country and a society deeply damaged by mass unemployment and mass emigration, by crippling household debt, by persistent poverty for a large section of our people, by a dire shortage of social housing, and by the deliberate erosion and downgrading of public services, especially health services.

Behind all the bluster from the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste about jobs is the sordid reality of what is now on offer to the young unemployed - €20 per week on top of one's dole for working 19 hours per week for a local authority Gateway scheme. This is called activation. The term "activation" is insulting in this instance because it suggests that the unemployed are somehow inactive and not actively seeking and desperately needing real work for real wages. I do not believe that is the case.

One of the ways young people get activated is in education and training, but the Government has put up barriers to education and training. The education Minister, Deputy Quinn, has broken his pledge not to increase college fees. Worse than that, he is now penalising young apprentices with his imposition of student service charges on them. Only this week, a colleague of mine was contacted by a father whose son has nearly completed his four-year apprenticeship and is ready to sit his final exams, but he will receive no qualification if he does not come up with the €1,400 charge now imposed by the Minister, and this family simply cannot afford it.

Of course, this is only one of many broken pledges from Fine Gael and Labour. Most notoriously, Labour pledged to protect child benefit and then proceeded to cut it. Fine Gael pledged to reduce the tax burden on struggling families and individuals, but has heaped more on them.

The real Tánaiste in this Government is not the Labour leader, Deputy Gilmore, but the Taoiseach's fixer and party bouncer - he may even relish the terms - the Minister, Deputy Hogan. He has presided over the imposition of the household charge and the so-called "local" property tax. Of course, it is not local because the funds are being retained by central Government, and it is deeply unfair because it targets the family home with no regard whatsoever for ability to pay.

The Government takes the people for fools. It is waiting until after the local and European elections on 23 May before sending out the bills for water charges. Before we even know what the charges for householders will be, the Minister, Deputy Hogan, has poured millions of euro into the Uisce Éireann quango, complete with overpaid executives and massive fees for consultants. I believe the electorate will give Deputy Hogan and the Government their answer in no uncertain terms on 23 May. That is the real poll that we all now face.

Speaking earlier today in this debate, the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, promised public consultation on his plans for universal health insurance. It seems now that the row between Deputy Reilly and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, has resulted in the can being kicked down the road yet again.

The programme for Government states:

A White Paper on Financing UHI will be published early in the Government's first term and will review cost-effective pricing and funding mechanisms for care and care to be covered under UHI.

We are over half way through the Government's term of office and there is no White Paper published.

It should be noted also that the Government now refers to the White Paper on universal health insurance, and "funding" has been taken out of the title. From what has emerged during the war of leaks between the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, it seems the White Paper contains no costings or estimates. In all of this, the general public and their elected representatives have been treated with contempt by the Government. The White Paper, or elements or versions of it, have been extensively leaked. Some journalists have obviously seen or obtained copies yet we are still denied access and the White Paper remains unpublished.

It is reported in a news article in The Irish Timestoday that the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children will hold public hearings on UHI. I am a member of the committee, as is the Acting Chairman, Deputy Catherine Byrne, and this is the first I have heard of any such proposal for public hearings of our committee. At least to the time of this contribution, our committee has received no communication from the Minister or the Department. The same news article states that a proposal for a citizens' assembly to facilitate consultation on health reform – another proposal that we have not seen – has been shelved yet the same paper’s editorial states the opposite. Are we looking at a scenario where the Minister and the Department will ask the Oireachtas committee to do their work for them and shield them from direct contact with the public whom the Minister allegedly wishes to consult?

To add insult to injury, the outcome of the public consultation has already been predetermined. The public consultation is not to consider whether the proposal of the Minister, Deputy Reilly, for UHI based on competing private for-profit health insurance companies is the appropriate way to reform and fund our health system. Instead the agenda has, apparently, already been set and it is to determine what will be in the so-called basket of care covered under UHI. I take this opportunity to demand of this Minister and this Government the immediate publication of the White Paper on universal health insurance, the publication of estimated costings for UHI, real public consultation not confined to the Oireachtas health committee but including a citizens' health assembly which would receive the views and input of people throughout the country, and for consultation not to be confined to options within the Minister’s proposed UHI scheme, but to examine other options of reforming and funding our health care system.

In Sinn Féin we are very clear what we bring to the debate about health care reform. We demand an end to the savage health cuts that are causing misery in our health system. We want to see the development of a decent health service based on fairness and on the rights of all to the best possible health care that we, as a society, can provide. We strongly advocate a universal health care system with equal access for all based on need and need alone. We want to see the two-tier public-private system abolished so that no sick person can be left behind. The Minister’s fundamentally flawed private insurance based model will not achieve that. The current system is both inequitable and inefficient. Many people are paying on the double for health services through tax, PRSI and private health insurance. Many are paying through direct fees to GPs and hospitals because they do not qualify for the medical card. Many very ill people are losing or being denied a medical card. The public health system is carrying the subsidised private system on its back and what we need is a new beginning in health care.

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