Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is up to the Government, which has had four years and some successes, but there is a gaping hole now because it has continued to reduce the number of beds and its investment. It now has the capacity to invest in a structured way, because there is more money available, yet the Government refuses to do it. An example of that is the Minister’s failure to get the additional €75 million he needed, which would have dealt with the crisis. That comes on top of the promises made. The Government dismantled the HSE, saying that was the big problem, because it was an easy one to sell to the public. It said that if it got rid of the HSE and all the layers of management and brought the system back under the Department’s control, all would be well. That has not worked and will not work. It said it would deal with the funding problem through the introduction of universal health insurance, which initially was to be based on the Dutch model. Then there was to be a bit of the Danish model. Then Angela got a phone call from Enda and there was going to be a bit of the German model, because maybe that would help. We have ended up with the Fine Gael model, which is to deny there is a problem, when that does not work, deny it again, and when that does not work, blame the previous Government, saying it did nothing but write reports and deliver nothing, denying the facts absolutely. The latest is to tell us what it is going to do after two more elections, well out into the 2020s. It says that if the people trust it as they did in 2011, some time by 2030 it will have the problem solved. The Irish people will not buy that canard again. If they look at the promises the Government made prior to 2011, such as "Abolish the HSE and everything will be fine," they will see that they failed. The Taoiseach said “I'll end the scandal of patients on trolleys.” He put it on a poster, in case people might not know about it. That has failed.

The former Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, said we would never again see 569 people on trolleys on a single day while this Government is in office. That could be factually correct, because maybe we will never see the day when there are exactly 569 people on trolleys, but we have seen 600 while this Government is in office. The current Minister has said we may see more. I would love to hear how the Government will deal with that, rather than its criticism of the actions taken to resolve the issues between 2001 and 2010.

To help Deputy Twomey, I will be constructive. The Minister could deal with investment for the accident and emergency unit in the mid-west. If he got rid of the procurement rules, that department would be up and running more quickly. On the Fair Deal scheme, he should stop expecting people to pay for the first 15 weeks of care in a private nursing home - €15,000 or €20,000 that they do not have available to them. That is a fairly straightforward way to get 800 people out of acute facilities who have been medically discharged and do not need to be there, creating space for people to move through the system.

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