Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I can come in here and remind the Minister of State that her party and Fine Gael in opposition criticised the decision of the previous Administration to begin a process of reconfiguration of the health services, all of which was based around international best practice and which was introduced to ensure the best possible outcomes for patients. They objected to it from an Opposition standpoint. They used emotive language, suggesting that people would die and that they would not get critical care within the golden hour, a scenario that has been so richly abused by Fine Gael and the Labour Party. When they came to government, they accepted the facts of international best practice and went on to say that reconfiguration would continue apace, but they have failed abysmally to invest in, support and fund it.

A critical component of the reconfiguration process is an adequate and appropriate ambulance service. The ambulance system is creaking. I had the opportunity to visit its headquarters recently. They are fine people and they have great technology, but they have ambulances on the road that are out of date and, in some cases, falling apart and breaking down, which means patients are not getting the care they need on time.

In my county of Clare, there is a shortage of 20 personnel. There is not adequate staffing in the county to deliver on reconfiguration. I see none of my colleagues here who frightened the people of Clare against the notion of reconfiguration, using emotive language and saying 20 people per year would die. I have challenged them on many occasions to come in here and say whether 20 people per year died because of the principle of reconfiguration. If that is the case, why has the Government not reversed it? It has refused to enter the debate.

Having accepted that reconfiguration was the right policy in the first instance, the Government has declined to challenge the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Health and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to put an adequate amount of money in place to properly fund the reconfiguration process. Until that happens, the Government will not have a system in the health service that meets the needs of people who have been transferred, in the case of Limerick, from Nenagh, St John’s Hospital and Ennis. People took hard decisions and, eventually, bought into the notion that it was the right thing to do. However, the Government has failed abysmally to fund the policy.

There is not an appropriate person in University Hospital Limerick to read cancer scans. Limerick is a centre of excellence for the delivery of cancer care and, heretofore, the assumption was that the policy would be adequately funded. However, it does not appear to be. It gives me no pleasure to challenge the Minister of State or the Government on the issue, given that the lives of people are affected by it. However, we owe it to the people we represent to challenge the Government every day of the week until we receive adequate funding.

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