Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will quote an article from The Sunday Business Post. It stated: "When Dublin-based surgeon Rustom Manecksha sees a patient in the hospital where he works, he asks whether his patient has private health insurance." Does it not say it all about the state of our two-tier system that the first thing a doctor tries to ascertain is what level of insurance somebody has in order to access treatment? Under the Minister's watch, almost half a million people - 471,967 - are on waiting lists. One in ten people in this State are waiting for treatment. A total of 399,000 people are waiting for outpatient treatment, 11,000 of whom are in the Minister's local hospital - Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown. A total of 159,000 people have been waiting for more than six months and many more have been waiting for a year.

Why do such massive waiting lists exist? If we were to listen to Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party and some other commentators, it is purely to do with mismanagement. It is not to do with this. It is to do with a decision taken in the past seven to eight years to inflict a punishing regime of austerity to bail out the super-wealthy. I will give the academic backup for this claim. A survey by Trinity College Dublin published last year showed that €2.7 billion has been taken out of the health service since 2009. This resulted in 12,000 fewer staff, 21,000 fewer appointments, 30,000 fewer day cases - no wonder one person in ten is waiting on treatment - and 941 fewer beds. A total of 2 million home help hours were taken out of the health service every year. In his speech, the Minister said he would maintain home help services at the 2015 level. We need to put back in what was taken out because of the bailout - a decision taken by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Green Party.

The most recent figures relating to trolley watch, which is a daily routine, show that there was a 5% increase in the number of people on trolleys last year but that there has been a 99% increase since 2008. This is further confirmation, if ever it was needed, that the bailout, austerity and capitalism led to people suffering in the context of their health. I mentioned the disparity between public and private treatment. The cuts in the health service hit low and middle income workers in particular. The Trinity College survey also indicated that the €100 million cut in the drug payment scheme added to medication costs. It showed the effects of the cut in home help hours. What is particularly frightening is that it showed the different treatment for public and private patients. For example, in the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin, there are robotics to remove part of the kidney in the treatment of kidney cancer. A public patient, however, does not get that treatment but the kidney is removed. That is quite sickening. A cousin of mine died from kidney cancer so this does happen to people

It has been widely publicised in the past week that 330 deaths per year are being caused by the lack of intensive care beds. Dr. Stephen Frohlich, a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine, has stated that cuts in intensive care units are grossly unsafe for patients. People suffer every day from the cuts in occupational therapy and speech and language therapy. Linked to the housing crisis, a key problem my constituents contact me about is the waiting list for the housing adaptation grant. A person who is priority 1 is seen within five days. However, at priority 2, the wait is one year and at priority 3, in the Dublin 7 or 15 areas, it is 65 weeks.

I could go on but my time is running out and I want to mention neurology. There is a case in Dublin West of a man who had a workplace accident in 2013 and who is still waiting for an appointment with a neurologist for treatment for a brain injury. This is absolutely incredible. There are similar complaints about stroke patients and ambulance treatments, which I do not have time to discuss. We must reinvest, tax wealth in society and make the corporations pay in order that we might invest in our health service, education and public services.

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