Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I spoke this morning with Daniel Long who is the father of Orlaith, a little six-week old baby girl who was forced to wait 11 hours in the accident and emergency department of Cork University Hospital for a bed. Orlaith, with her father and mother, Debbie Looney, was referred to hospital as she was unable to hold her bottle down. She kept getting sick and she showed signs of dehydration. She was admitted to the accident and emergency department at 11.20 p.m. on Sunday, 22 November but she only got a bed at 10.30 a.m. the following day. Is it not an indictment of the Government's stewardship of our health service that a six-week old child and her parents were put through such an ordeal? Is it not particularly so because such unfairness to citizens like Orlaith is no longer unusual on the Taoiseach's watch? It is the norm.

He promised to reform our health service, to end the scandal of patients on trolleys and to end the two-tier system of unequal access to health care. He also promised free GP care for all, an end to prescription charges and the abolition of the HSE but he has delivered none of this. In fairness, he never promised universal health care because he is opposed to it and that is why Orlaith ended up on a trolley, that is why 25 out of 29 accident and emergency departments have seen increased overcrowding; and that is why there are delayed discharges, a shortage of home care packages and a lack of nursing home beds. The Government is responsible for a health service in complete chaos. Is Orlaith's disturbing case not further evidence that the Government has no intention of adequately resourcing the health service and bringing in universal health care?

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