Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Deputies who contributed to this debate. We were accused of playing politics by putting down this motion, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Highlighting the concerns of society and the front-line staff who work in our emergency departments over patient safety and dignity is not playing politics. The Government was playing politics when it pretended it was going to solve all the problems. It made promises to this effect, and that is playing politics. It is pretending it is going to do something it has had no notion of doing. That is what is disingenuous in this whole debate.

The Taoiseach said he would end the scandal of people of trolleys, but, of course, he did so in advance of the election. The previous Minister for Health fell into the camera with the usual ould tear saying he would resolve this issue, and he said there would never again be 569 people on trolleys. The bottom line is that there were; there were 601 people on trolleys. What is even more disturbing is that the Government knew this would happen and did nothing about it. Therefore, I am not playing politics with the matter at all; I am just highlighting the Government's inability to deal with a crisis it knew full well would happen at some stage. It was warned that there was an impending crisis over delayed discharges by the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, who took up his new portfolio last July. He was warned in November that there was an impending crisis because of delayed discharges and the lack of funding for the fair deal, home care packages, step-down facilities and home help.

The bottom line is that the politics being played is being played on the Government side. There is but one thing, and one thing only - spin. There is absolute spin on a continual basis. Week in, week out, 300 to 400 people are on trolleys, yet the Government has tried to convince everyone here that it is on top of the problem. It was not until the number on trolleys in emergency departments reached 601 that it was realised there is a crisis in emergency departments throughout the country. Front-line staff have been saying this for years, as have Opposition Deputies, consultants and people dealing with the coalface. The Government has been telling us the contrary consistently.

Farcically, in March 2013 Government Deputies tabled 43 questions on waiting lists and 17 on the trolley count to applaud the Minister and give him a clap on the back. He was trying to convince us he was getting on top of the problem. That is how farcical circumstances were. That is playing politics. I certainly do not believe that my highlighting the issue everybody else is talking about, particularly when it involves the compromise of patient safety, is playing politics. The Taoiseach stated in the Chamber only yesterday that patient safety was not what it should be. We tried to interpret that in a number of ways but the bottom line is that he was trying to absolve himself from anything that may happen or could have happened owing to overcrowding in emergency departments. The buck has to stop with somebody. The bottom line is that there are not adequate resources being put in place.

It has been said nobody should blame the old person in the hospital for taking up the bed. Of course nobody is blaming the person in the hospital for taking up the bed. What we are doing is pointing the finger quite clearly at the Government and HSE for not ensuring there is a proper bed to which a person can go, such as his own bed at home if there are home help hours and a home care package. However, if the patient is incapable of going home and requires full-time nursing care, he should be in a residential unit or step--down facility rather than a hospital in which he does not want to, and should not, be.

Our duty is quite simple. It is to highlight the fact that the Government has played politics with health services for years. The Members opposite did so in opposition and, by hell, they are doing so in government. There is continual spin over the substance of the matter. The Government has provided inadequate funding in 2015 under the health budget. The only way it will get through this year is on a wing and a prayer in the hope that medical cards will be taken from people because of the financial qualification guidelines. It is hoped those earning a little more than what is specified in the financial guidelines will lose their cards. I cannot see any other way in which the Government will match the budget. In the meantime, it is responsible. I commend the motion to the House for the right reasons and hope the Government will take on board its sentiment.

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