Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There was one Minister here for most of the morning. I welcome the other colleagues who have now come into the Chamber.

In regard to the Minister's speech, I deplore the lack of vision and the utter failure to recognise the crisis that exists in health, as it does in housing - two issues among a number of other issues that have driven me into the Dáil to have a voice. There is an interconnection between the lack of provision of homes for our people and health. While I welcome the positive initiatives referred to in the speech, I note - I do not want to personalise this with regard to the Minister - that it sums up the complete failure of the outgoing Government and, presumably, the incoming Government to recognise the extent of the crisis and, more importantly, the utter failure to give a solution.

In his conclusion, the Minister told us that our growing and aging population means that more is required in order to maintain the current levels of health service provision. The current levels of health service provision have led us to a crisis and to all of the stories about people on trolleys, people failing to get surgery and the cancellation of cancer clinics. They have led us to the most recent and deplorable example in Galway, which has been in all the national newspapers, in which a doctor, under extraordinary pressure - I have an understanding of that pressure - pointed out if that if one gentleman who was seeking surgery was to have that surgery, then somebody else's life would be in danger because of the lack of intensive care beds. There was also a letter from a consultant in Donegal. We have seen orthopaedic surgeons marching in Galway and we have seen doctors put their names to a letter about the lack of intensive care beds.

None of this is new - we know it is the case. The question is why. I had the privilege of being a local councillor from 1999 until this year and I sat on a regional health forum, which I used very effectively, with other colleagues, to elicit information. There has been a systematic running down of the public health service and a channelling of money into private hospitals. There was the failed co-location policy, already mentioned by Deputy Shortall, and it took all of our energy to stop the placing of private hospitals on public lands. We had the National Treatment Purchase Fund, an absolute failure, except for providing a window-dressing service for patients. It may help them, indeed, but in terms of the overall system, it is an utter failure and a channelling of public money into private hospitals. We had the special delivery unit from the last Government, an utter failure. We had the creation of a trust system, about which Professor Drumm himself recently expressed great concern. Huge effort and public money has gone into the establishment of a trust system in Galway, which I believe is wrong and amounts to following a failed system in England. Still we go on with more initiatives that are doomed to failure, because the very thing we were asked to do when Dr. O'Rourke wrote to all of us was to look at what is wrong. Let us have an audit and an analysis of the system so we can come up with a solution. Let us stop focusing in on one aspect such as accident and emergency departments - although the accident and emergency service is at crisis point in Galway - because the more we zoom in on that, the more pressure we put on wards that are holding trolleys. Deputy Pringle mentioned Dr. O'Rourke's point that beds remain empty because of the accident and emergency protocol that demands that beds remain empty and cannot be used. We could go on and on about this.

Primary care has been mentioned. I have seen no roll-out of primary care of any substantial nature. The primary care centres that have been rolled out have followed the failed model of building more buildings and then renting them back. The new primary care centre in Galway is costing €250,000 per year in rent alone.

There has been no mention of domestic violence. Some of us attended a conference yesterday at which a startling figure of €1.2 billion per year - year after year - was mentioned as the cost to the economy of domestic violence. For one patient, the cost of admission through the accident and emergency department after she was subjected to domestic violence, plus follow-up care, was €60,000. Yet this does not feature in any debate or programme for Government, as far as I can see. Those at the conference made very moderate demands, all of which would reduce the cost to the Exchequer in the long term.

To go back to the public health system, I am tired of listening to lines such as "We cannot afford it yet," "The budget will not allow for it," and "We will do as much as we can." That is upside down. This Dáil has to realise that when we put money into public health and keep people healthy, we will actually help the economy to thrive.

I welcome Deputy Hildegarde Naughton's request today for a new hospital in Galway. I have been a lone voice on that matter for a long time. Her own colleague does not agree with her, nor do her Fianna Fáil colleagues. If there is a change, I will absolutely welcome it. There are 158 acres in Merlin Park, while the site in Galway has been built out of all proportion. It has had to move a helicopter pad and a car parking area, all to build what Deputy Naughton has already referred to as a new building whose capacity to increase the number of beds available is greatly in doubt.

To conclude, I will work with any Government in regard to public health when I see a commitment to a vision for public health, but that is what is lacking.

It has been lacking not only on the part of this and the last Government, but by previous Governments, beginning with the vision, or lack of it, of Mary Harney and the Progressive Democrats. Their whole vision was for the privatisation of services. That has not changed, unfortunately. Although the political parties have changed, that vision has not changed. This is the vision that I unapologetically stand against in this Chamber.

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