Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Sorry, a Cheann Comhairle. I still contend, even if, as the Minister is suggesting, they are going on strike for better pay, what they are looking for would still leave them earning considerably less than what consultants are getting here. If we add in what the consultants are getting in private practice, given they are paid by the public purse and, then, as I mentioned, get €400 million from the private health insurance companies, they are earning pretty good money over here.

The reason they are leaving is because the health service in a mess. When the bag I carry my computer in burst, and I had to get another bag for the computer, coincidentally, I found an article written by Senator John Crown three or four years ago in which he made exactly this point. He said the reason doctors are leaving is not primarily to do with pay; it is to do with the mess in the health service. The international evidence shows this. Now, the ESRI is confirming that the Minister's model is basically null and void.

What is the alternative? The alternative is the national health service model. It is a one-tier system, with health care based on medical need, free at the point of delivery. Why would that be more efficient and cheaper? It is because there would not be all the waste, with excessive money going to private consultants through private health insurance companies, and all of the advertising, the billing and the unnecessary administration. The money could just be focused on the health service.

Would it still cost us, given this is the other thing the Minister will say? It would cost us. The ESRI suggests that in order to deliver the Minister's model, we would need between €500 million and €2 billion extra. I would say we still need that and probably a bit more - probably €2 billion to €3 billion - and we would certainly need to reverse the cuts that have been imposed in recent years, when the Government cut the budget from €17 billion to €13 billion and axed 10,000 staff and thousands of beds. That would need to be reversed and we would need more investment in a number of areas. One way or another, we need more money in the health service. However, if we did not have all of this profit-taking by private health insurance companies, the unnecessary and excessive money going to private consultants, and all the administration, billing, advertising and so on, that money could be directed to front-line services where it would be more efficiently spent. In addition, I, the Minister and ordinary members of the public would not have a pain in the head, never mind the pain we may be feeling in our bodies, when we think about the health service, because it would be simple. We would not have to think about it; we would just go and get the service as we need it.

Instead, we have this unbelievable, labyrinthine, shambolic, chaotic, failing system that even the Minister now has to acknowledge is failing and has to be reviewed. Four and a half years after the big promises, we are going to review it all again. I suggest that the review is a fundamental, root and branch abandoning of the privatised, private insurance model of delivering health care. We need to move to something that works, which, whenever it has been done, is the national health service model. That is what we need. The sooner this Government or any Government cops on to that, the better.

Of course, we can pay for that by just making those at the top pay a little bit more tax. To be honest, I think everybody would be willing to pay a bit more if they knew they were going to get a health service that works. The Government needs to make those at the top pay a fairer contribution towards the provision of the services we need for a civilised society.

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