Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This is not a perennial problem; it runs much deeper than the yearly crisis that is generated. I want to differentiate between the political and the personal, because that is important. I am sure the Minister and everybody else in the House does not want to see anybody on a trolley, but it happens. At one stage this year, 600 people were on trolleys. They are ordinary people who paid taxes and try to live a good life, but are sick and sought help from the Irish health service. It is an embarrassment, as a citizen of the country, to see people on trolleys waiting for basic health services.

I said I do not want to be personal, but rather political. The Fine Gael Party has been in government for the past six years and has had two previous Ministers for Health who failed abjectly. The Minister should be embarrassed to be a part of Fine Gael, a party that has let down many people in the country who paid tax and yet have to suffer.

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