Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The health situation is in chaos, morale is at an all-time low and a fundamental decision has been taken by the Government to end the implementation of the universal health insurance scheme, which was a pillar of Government policy for the past five years and of the Fine Gael Party for the past decade. The programme for Government was consistently very clear over the past five years that universal health insurance would be introduced. We have had an announcement from the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, that the scheme will never be introduced, following a report by the Economic and Social Research Institute stating it would cost families and children thousands of euro more, and would cost the country billions, with no great outcomes.

In many ways I am surprised there was only one meeting, which was on 2 November. Prior to this, the Taoiseach will recall that on Leaders' Questions and the Order of Business I consistently asked about the universal health insurance scheme and the legislation on it. The Taoiseach kept telling me it would be introduced and would happen. It seems the meetings have dried up in the latter half of the year despite the fact a fundamental reversal of policy was under way and being considered, and the only issue was when to announce it. The Minister took his opportunity when other events were grabbing the headlines to try to slip through the reversal and fundamental U-turn on Government health policy. Will the Taoiseach indicate why there has been only one meeting of the Cabinet committee on health since 13 July given the fact such a fundamental policy U-turn and change was under way and given the fact the emergency departments in our hospitals have been consistently reporting record numbers of patients on trolleys?

Waiting times and waiting lists have gone through the roof and spiralled out of control in almost all hospitals across the country. We are facing the first national nurses' strike in a long time as a consequence of the chaotic, unsafe and very worrying practices under way in our overcrowded emergency departments, the circumstances and conditions that have been created as a result of that overcrowding and the low morale within the health service. In all these circumstances, why has there been only one meeting of the Cabinet committee on health since 13 July?

Does the Taoiseach agree there has been no meeting because the system is not working? All we have witnessed has been decline and more decline in terms of the quality of service and the working conditions of doctors, nurses and other health care staff in hospitals across the country. Is the paucity of meetings in the latter half of the year reflective of the Minister going it alone and not really taking heed of the wider Cabinet? I recall the Taoiseach saying two years ago that he was taking charge of the health service himself, but he abandoned that fairly quickly. Whatever system is in place in terms of the Cabinet sub-committees, the lack of any regular meetings in the latter half of the year more or less stands up the view that from a policy perspective, nobody really knows what is going on now at the heart of Government and that the entire programme for Government on health lies in tatters as a consequence.

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