Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We have a very significant health budget which one would imagine would translate into a state-of-the-art health service. While we have very professional, hard-working and committed staff and excellence in certain areas, including, I acknowledge in particular, in the treatment of cancer, the stark reality is that we do not have a state-of-the-art service and there are glaring deficiencies. I looked first at the Government amendment. I could accept certain aspects of it if we were at the start of a Dáil term and the Minister was setting out his aims and objectives to improve waiting times, the actions to bring about improvements in the delivery of care and the goal of optimum patient care and safety as a priority, but we are coming to the end of a five-year term and we must ask what has happened to those aims since March 2011 and what progress has been made. Looking at other aspects of the Government amendment, I note the reference to significant progress in relation to delayed discharges, nursing home support schemes, home-care packages, nursing home beds and waiting times. This brings us to the disconnect between what is presented as statistics and fact and the reality on the ground. The reality is that people are still waiting unacceptably long times for procedures. I am reminded today of a call from somebody for whom a hip replacement was recommended last March. She is still waiting on the appointment with the surgeon even to get the date, which will be even further on. In the meantime, her situation has worsened and she now cannot work. She is not working, she is not paying tax and she is not contributing to society but is a burden on it.

We know about the shortfall in staff and the crisis in attracting nurses, in particular our own trained and qualified nurses either to stay in or return to Ireland.

I spoke with a past pupil who trained as a nurse in DCU and went to Australia. While the monetary incentive was encouraging, her point was that the working conditions in Ireland would have been unacceptable at the hospital in which she worked in Melbourne. Given how much is spent on providing our nurses with excellent training, the amount spent on employing agency nurses is a waste of resources.

The Fianna Fáil Party's proposal focuses on waiting lists, particularly in accident and emergency units. I will discuss an aspect with which I am familiar, that being, addiction. Accident and emergency units are not the place for those presenting with drug and alcohol addictions. In many, although not all, cases, the behaviour of the addict can be threatening and aggressive. Accident and emergency units should not be dealing with those in addiction. It is not fair to the addicts, the other patients presenting or the staff. If we had a designated accident and emergency unit for those in addiction, there might be links and follow-ups for addicts to get them out of the cycle of addiction. Currently, an addict receives a blood test and, if necessary, X-rays, and he or she is put on a drip for a few hours before being sent back into society until the next fix goes wrong or the next binge. We know the difference that recovery makes. A designated accident and emergency unit could be the start of that.

Accident and emergency services are inadequate in another regard, that is, people with intellectual disabilities. There is no designated intellectual disability nurse in accident and emergency units to assist. I attended today's Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation protest outside. I met people I knew who highlighted the cuts to intellectual disability services. The reduction of 9.4% in the budget translated into €160 million. There have been reductions in staff numbers, the respite care grant, the housing adaptation grant and speech and language therapy. People told me that more than 5,000 children with disabilities would require speech and language therapy for the first time in the next four years. This is not to mention the waiting list for occupational therapy and physiotherapy. For three days last week, people with physical disabilities campaigned outside the Dáil. At least they have their own voices with which to present their issues. Those with intellectual disabilities, many of whom also have physical disabilities, have serious and additional challenges. Last week's protest by those with physical disabilities was to highlight the inequalities and poverty that they faced. Mr. Martin Naughton, who led the campaign, asked the Taoiseach to listen to the voices of people with disabilities who wanted to live independently away from residential care. Self-determination was at the heart of their protest.

I wish to mention a point about hospitals that was not raised in the motion or the amendment, namely, food. An inordinate amount of money is wasted on the kinds of food presented in our hospitals. According to some studies, if a hospital gets the food right, other bills are alleviated. It is wrong that we have a health service in which it is safer to be out of hospital than in hospital. People who go to hospital should stay longer for more care, but they are told that it is safer and healthier for them to be out of hospital.

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