Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I hope the Ceann Comhairle will allow me to raise some matters around the issue of health that are of concern. I understand the Cabinet sub-committee covers a wide range of issues including general expenditure, the Health Service Executive, HSE, implementation plan, the development of primary care and community systems, mental health provision and pay and agency costs, in addition to other matters.

I know the Taoiseach is forbidden to report on conversations had by the Cabinet sub-committee on health but in January, the Minister for Health brought forward his 25 health priorities. Given that the last meeting of the health committee was in May, will the Taoiseach indicate if those priorities were discussed?

I recall the Taoiseach telling me previously that the big challenge for the Minister for Health is to stabilise the health system in order that it can deliver the results we expect. Given what is happening within our health system across a range of disciplines, does the Taoiseach accept that the Government's general health policy is failing and that this committee is failing also because the difficulties within the health service are increasing, not decreasing? We have the difficulties around persuading doctors to buy into the proposal for cover for children under the age of six, which the Government promised to have in place in July. Today, there are 395 citizens on hospital trolleys. In Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, in my constituency, there are 37 citizens on trolleys, which is the second highest number in the State. Those are the type of figures one would usually associate with the winter months. The Government has failed entirely to end that scandal. I was in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital last week and it is obvious that the staff and everyone else involved are doing their best but there is not the capacity, given the number of nursing places and the number of beds the Government has scrapped.

At the end of April, 412,422 citizens were on the outpatient waiting list, and 72,000 of them have been waiting for more than a year. Those figures are unacceptable. We have asked here on a number of occasions if there will be a supplementary budget for health. We did not get an answer, but it is expected that the HSE will be over budget by at least €100 million for the first three months of this year.

I will conclude on this crucially important point about the lack of mental health services. This month sees the Green Ribbon campaign to get people talking about mental health. I do not believe there is a family across this island who does not have a story to tell but austerity, the economic crisis and Government policy have had negative impacts on these services, including mental health and well-being.

Big gaps have been created by dint of Government policy. The recent report from the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, on the safety of services in the Midland Regional Hospital found that the hospital was not governed, resourced or equipped to provide the 24 hours, seven days acute surgery, accident and emergency, and maternity services that are required. The Minister, on behalf of all of us, has extended solidarity to the families who were bereaved, and I do so again now.

I commend them for persevering to get to the truth about what happened in Portlaoise. HIQA stated patient safety was not a priority and that there were similar sad and serious cases on all HSE sites. Perhaps the Taoiseach might give us some indication of what the Government is doing and how the health committee is responding to what is a crisis in the health service.

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