Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I welcome the fact that young families with children under six and elderly people will see some bit of light. There are a lot of families who are struggling throughout the country. People with young children often try to be the doctor at home, rather than paying the €50 fee. If children have the flu or some such, their parents will often fall back on the old medicines that their fathers and mothers before them used because €50 is not easy to come by for many. In that context, this move is a step in the right direction. The argument will be made that the rich will be able to avail of it and that is true but if we can help people in middle-class Ireland who do not have medical cards, then that must be welcomed. That said, I know that when they go to the chemist, they will still have to put their hand in their pocket but every pound saved is good. In terms of the elderly, many of whom worked all their lives, I would go further and give them full medical cards. Many of them deserve it because they fought the good fight down through the years. The number of people over 70 is growing all of the time and we should do whatever we can for them.

As other Deputies have said, great rural doctors have done so much all over the country. One could throw a stone up at their window at night and they would come out to help with a sick child or relative. Such doctors are getting scarcer however and now when one calls a doctor out of hours there is often a problem. In many parts of Ireland - people are afraid to say it - doctors are covering for local GPs and it is very hard to understand a lot of them, with all due respect. Generally one is told to head for the hospital when, in a lot of cases, there is absolutely no need to do so. We could be treating more problems at home. That problem has to be addressed and we must start with its root cause, which is where doctors go after college. We are educating a lot of youngsters in college and we must introduce some enticement for them to stay in this country. People are spending seven years at college and a lot of funding is invested in their education. We must give them some incentive to work here rather than go off to the sun the minute they qualify. We must address that problem because statistics indicate that the numbers are dwindling in rural Ireland. There is no point in trying to hide from that fact. People are having to travel longer distances to find a doctor. It is not as appealing to be a doctor in rural Ireland if the numbers living in the area are diminishing. We must do a bit of soul searching in this regard and do whatever is necessary to keep youngsters at home. We have a very good education system and the doctors who qualify here are of a very high calibre and we should do something to make sure that they stay.

Currently I am dealing with a seven year old child who needs an operation which is not available in this country. Even if families are given a GP visit card, the sad reality is that there are children who have to go to other lands for operations and their families are fund raising in order for this to happen. Every child is special to his or her mother and father. Every parent wants to see his or her child growing up and we should try to facilitate them in whatever way we can. Medicine is moving on constantly and more operations are being carried out in different fields but there are still things that we, as a nation, need to do to make sure that these youngsters are given a chance. I spoke to a family recently who are trying to raise funds for their child to go to America and it is sad that we cannot provide the necessary care in this country. The Minister for Health is relatively new in the job and given that he comes from the field of medicine, he probably understands it better than most. I urge him to think outside the box and do things that were never done before because that is the only way we will achieve things.

Another issue of major concern all over Ireland is the fair deal scheme. Farmers, whether male or female, who have land are finding that the fair deal keeps eating into their package of land the whole time, even after the initial three years. It keeps going at it. It is a different scenario in every other situation and I encourage the Minister to look at that. There is also a lot of confusion out there about insurance. I spoke to a person recently who is 54 and who has no health insurance cover. He heard about the new health insurance scheme that he was supposed to join but he did not know if he would have to pay a 50% fine if he did not go into the scheme on the first day. There is a lot of confusion about that. It would be no harm to prepare and distribute a booklet on the matter to help people to understand it. I have spoken to many people and discovered that they have not grasped what is involved, particularly those who do not watch a lot of television. A lot of people are asking a lot of questions about what the insurance policy will cover.

Long before I ever came into the Dáil there was talk of providing universal health insurance for everyone. We heard that it would be 2019 or 2020 before it could happen but now we seem to be going down a different road entirely involving everyone having private health insurance.

As with any other scenario, this is because the powers that be like to move people through the system fairly fast as a result of the money which can be realised via some of the private hospitals. I am concerned about this matter because I am aware of people with various complications who were admitted to private hospitals and who then had to be transferred to public ones which had the technology and facilities necessary to treat them. I hope the position in this regard will be reconsidered.

I welcome much of what the Government is doing. However, we should examine the possibility of extending free GP care to children over the age of six. I accept that things might be somewhat easier now but in the past year children who were genuinely entitled to medical cards were refused them. It does not matter whether one is three, six, nine or 12 years of age, if one needs treatment, then one must have it. There should not be a distinction between children who are five and a half years of age and those who are six and a half. In view of what is proposed, the parent of a child of five and a half can bring him or her to the doctor immediately if he or she is concerned. However, the parent of a child who is six and a half might think twice as a result of the financial cost involved. This is a major problem.

Anything that will assist people who are under pressure financially is welcome. Those whose children are going to qualify for free GP care, will bring them straight to the doctor and will not take risks because there will be no cost involved. In general, one must welcome any development of this nature.

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