Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

We all know the Government pitch for its own re-election. We know that the choice we apparently face is between stability and chaos. It must be a slogan that sounds very nice and clever in the minds of the Tory strategists for Fine Gael. The problem the Government has is that out in the real world, in particular our health service, there is no stability. There is instability and chaos. There is chaos in the health service. Last year, almost 100,000 people - 93,000 people - waited on a trolley for an inpatient bed. That is up from 77,000 in 2014. Those people and their families on waiting lists have no stability. More than 500 people are today sitting on trolleys waiting for a bed in an accident and emergency department. For them, there is absolute chaos. It also undermines the claim of the Minister for Health that the numbers on trolleys are going down. What about the 91 year old patient who, in November of last year, spent 29 hours in accident and emergency in Tallaght where, according to a doctor there, he was, in effect, subject to torture? There is no stability for him.

Why is this chaos unfolding in our health service? Is it a natural disaster to which we are all passive bystanders, wringing our hands, saying how bad it is and wishing we could do something about it, but about which none of us can do anything, regardless of whether one is the Minister, Taoiseach or other member of the Government? It is not. It is a man-made disaster. In fact, it is an austerity-made disaster. In 2016, the Government has budgeted to spend approximately €14 billion on both health and children. In 2009, it spent €16 billion on those areas. It is a result of that austerity. The Government will talk about doing more with less. There is only so much more a limited number of staff can do when they are already massively overworked and overstressed. The cuts must be reversed. There is a policy deliberately to push people into private health insurance, undermining the public health service in order to push people into the arms of the profiteers in the private health insurance companies. What we need is an end to and a reversal of the cuts and a national health service with proper, decent health care for all regardless of income.

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