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

My concerns have been sharpened in the recent past - not for the first time in my political experience - by actual cases that have been presented to me where people either do not have private health insurance or their plan is inadequate to cover the cost of the procedure they need and they are being told about inordinate waiting times. At the same time, however, they are being pushed into the private system, with the same consultant in the same hospital, if they furnish five figure sums - fact - and it is then a case of, "We can see you in the next two to three weeks." This puts those families in financial distress as they are not the people with ready cash to pay for it. They are already struggling in life and this is a hugely important moment, a challenge to either the man or the woman, in the case about which I speak, and his or her family. This is an absolute outrage and it has fed an ever-growing view in society that there is an abuse involved, whereby waiting lists are being created to put further pressure on those who are waiting to drive them towards "pay up and pay out" to line the pockets of those in this mode in front-line practice.

They bring only shame on their profession in my view.

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