Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

As I said earlier, there is a crisis at South Tipperary General Hospital as we speak. Trolley figures have increased by over 100% and figures released show that the March 2016 figure is 552, up 319 on the figure for March 2015. Hospital attendance has also increased substantially and occupancy of medical beds is running at 150%. When we last voted for Taoiseach here on 10 March 2016, there were 44 patients on trolleys in South Tipperary General Hospital. This was the highest number in the country. Those numbers have been consistently high since. Today's figure is 38. Patients in these circumstances have no dignity or privacy and have limited access to washing and bathroom facilities. Over the terms of the previous two Governments, the hospital has been starved of resources and approximately 25% or roughly €15 million of its budget has been reduced.

We need additional beds and staff urgently. The chaos in our emergency departments and the lack of beds generally in hospitals are causing several hundred unnecessary deaths each year according to eminent hospital consultants. This has everything to do with today’s debate and the vote for Taoiseach because the last two Governments, the Fianna Fáil-Green Government and the current Fine Gael-Labour Party Government agreed to pay €7 billion in debt interest repayments every year to the EU institutions and banks. The Taoiseach told us two and a half years ago that there would be a game change on this debt. I wonder if he even raised the issue at the most recent EU Council meeting because that never happened.

The fiscal treaty, which followed the Lisbon treaty, has created a new colonialism within Europe. That treaty flies in the face of the 1916 Proclamation. It is not a sovereignty-sharing treaty. It effectively sets aside Irish sovereignty and hands it over to the big EU powers. It must be renegotiated.

Little Ireland has shouldered 47% of the cost of the EU bank bailouts. Ireland should demand a debt conference and seek support from other indebted countries for that. The fiscal treaty requirement for Ireland is essentially a continuation of austerity over the next 20 years. Water charges are part of the fiscal treaty and are heaping repayments on ordinary citizens.

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