Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like many people in recent weeks, I was fascinated to watch the interplay between the Government and Fianna Fáil. I was interested to know how a pretend disagreement was manufactured when clearly these two right-wing parties agree on so much. What emerged was a mini-series that could have been scripted by the men and women who wrote "Dallas", complete with a comical script.

The health system is providing more care to more people with significantly less resources. We have an ageing population, more chronic disease and lengthening waiting lists. The Government should be clear and honest in how it frames the budget. Given that health spend per capitafell from €3,400 in 2009 to €2,770 in 2014, what is being done now is running to stand still. There is nothing transformative in the budget. Dr. Sara Burke put the crisis in the health system succinctly when she said that from 2013 onwards the health system could no longer do more with less and began to do less with less.

We cannot ignore that the chronic emergency department crisis is endemic with system-wide failures, with higher levels of unmet need, poor access to diagnostics outside of the hospital setting and long waiting lists for procedures. People like Vera Ronan and the thousands of others who are waiting for the implementation of the neuro-rehabilitation strategy are still waiting. What about families that have children with life-limiting disabilities? There is nothing in the budget to lead us to believe State-funded paediatric palliative care is any closer, which is wrong.

Today I met a lovely woman from County Donegal. I know that the Leas-Cheann Comhairle knows her and has done good work on her behalf, as have my colleagues Deputy Pearse Doherty and Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn. This lady inspired me to come in here and raise her case and those of her children. I do not know how she goes on. I do not know how she gets up in the morning, but she does. She has been waiting for the implementation of a strategy that is already in place. She has a son with a life-limiting condition. She has another son who has Down's syndrome. She put it very well when she said that she was fighting for an independent life for one son and an independent death for another. What are we to say to this woman? How are we to face her and tell her that it is like fiver Friday - there is a fiver here and a fiver there. A strategy has already been written, all that is needed is funding. How can we accept that the only meaningful paediatric palliative care that is offered in the State is provided off the back of charities? That is not right. Children deserve better. It is welcome that 10,000 children in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance will now receive a medical card. I have provided the legislation for the Minister. I do not expect there to be any delay. I know that the Minister of State, Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, will feel for this woman and hope she will take the message from this Chamber to the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, because we need to do something for the people concerned. It is not acceptable. The Government cannot state, "keep the recovery going" to them because they have never felt a recovery. That is not right and it is not fair. There should be something for them that will give them hope. I know that the Minister of State will take that message to the Minister for Health. I hope we will see some action in this regard because it is not fair and is not right. I raise the issue because I spoke to this woman today and, as the Minister of State can probably tell, she had a big impact on me. So many children are waiting and it is not right or fair.

The budget provides €15 million for the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF. To use the analogy of "Dallas" again, going back to the fund is like Sue Ellen going back to JR time and again and expecting something different to happen, but it will not. The NTPF means privatisation. Investing in privatisation never did and never will solve the problems in the public health service. Handing money to the private sector will not help public services to thrive. Taking money from the public sector and telling people that somehow that will benefit the public sector is counter-intuitive in the extreme. The National Treatment Purchase Fund, the brainchild of Fianna Fáil, will not help to resolve the health crisis. It will not address the public health crisis.

A total of 491 people are waiting for an initial physiotherapy assessment, while 4,481 are waiting for an initial occupational therapy assessment. These figures came out two months after the Minister had announced investment by the European Investment Bank in 14 primary care centres. Again, the programme for Government is littered with references to primary care. The Government does not need to convince me. I already believe primary care services need investment.

I already believe the primary care sector will be the driver of the health care system of the future, but the Government has to invest in it. Sinn Féin has asked a series of parliamentary questions about the 14 centres that are being built. The standard answer from the HSE every time is that as the services will be relocating from their existing bases, no additional staff will be employed. How can this be figured out? There are not enough staff working in primary care services and the Government's plan is to provide no more staff, while at the same time telling everybody that primary care services are the way forward for the health service. I am a member of the Committee on the Future of Healthcare which has been charged by the Minister for Health with the task of writing a ten year plan, which I absolutely welcome. We are doing good work, even if I say so myself. I know that there are other committee members in the Chamber. We are doing our best and listening to what the experts have to say, as that is what the committee should do. The experts are telling us that we need to invest in primary care services. We, therefore, need to provide more staff.

I will outline the headline figure, what one might call the trailer that is watched just before the news at 9 p.m. and "Dallas".

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