Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

However, an emotional response is not what is necessary. The stories behind those who bravely participated in the programme put a human face on the obscene figures that we all know about and that I and like-minded representatives have raised in this Chamber since the day we were elected here. In fairness to the Minister, it has not only been an issue with this Government but with successive Governments, and what we have had from each of them is reaction after reaction, a blaming and a distancing, and failed initiative after initiative. We had the special delivery unit, the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, co-location and so on. The stark reality is that Government policy after Government policy has made the health service a sick service. The reason the NTPF was introduced in 2004 was because of the massive waiting list. It was to be a short-term measure and in the meantime we were to recruit and put back in the staff that were taken out. That did not happen. All of the initiatives the Minister has introduced and all of the reactions have the common theme of putting funds into the private system. The end result is what was so graphically described in the programme the other night.

I have repeatedly mentioned University Hospital Galway, which the Minister could not find the time to visit. To use the words of its clinical director, the hospital, and not just its accident and emergency department, is not fit for purpose. He has specifically given the Minister a submission stating that not only the accident and emergency department but the hospital is not fit for purpose. We had the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar in October 2012. We still do not know if the recommendations of the report into her death have been implemented. Many courageous doctors and consultants have spoken out, among them Dr. Fergal Hickey, Dr. O'Rourke, Dr. McCabe and many other doctors in Galway, pointing out, number one, the crisis and, number two, the solutions. This and previous Governments have not listened. There are now three ongoing investigations in the hospital in Galway. An operation was carried out on a ward, another review is being carried out following the death of a person in their 80s on a trolley, and another one relates to inappropriate surgery that was carried out. At the very least three, and possibly four, investigations are taking place in that hospital that is creaking at the seams and serving 1 million people - this is not a parochial issue - from Donegal to Clare. That is the crisis that the "RTE Investigates" programme put images on the other night.

The Minister said in June 2016 that universal health care is a direction and journey, but we have come to the end of the journey. This is the end of the journey. Let us today recognise that universal health care is a basic human right. We should all be ashamed if that does not happen in the lifetime of this Government.

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