Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a matter of unfairness and the non-delivery of vital services in Kerry. I refer to cataracts. It is neither fair nor right that people of all ages have to wait for two or three years for a procedure. I will outline a couple of examples to the House. An 85-year old man, who is perfect in every way and is caring for his wife, needs a car to go to a shop and bring himself and his wife to mass but can no longer drive because he has been waiting over 18 months for an operation. He feels it would not be safe for him to drive and his car has been parked in a field. A 70-year old man who has had a disability for over 40 years had to sell the only thing he had in the world, his vintage car, for €4,500. He had been waiting for a year and a half for an operation and could not bear the fact that he could not see the television and watch the nine o'clock news and some other programmes. He is living alone and had to sell his vintage car to have an operation privately in order to restore his sight back to a reasonable level. A 62-year old man had to give up work because he was waiting for over two years to get one eye operated on. He now believes he has lost his sight in the second eye and is very depressed. That is what is happening with regard to cataracts in Kerry.

Teenagers have to wait four or five years for orthodontic treatment. Girls, in particular, are too embarrassed to socialise and are only barely able to go to school or college. In many cases they have lost their confidence. When treatment is carried out at the age of 17 or 18 years of age their gums are tough and the procedure is not as successful as it would be if carried out sooner.

We do not have nearly enough funding for home help. Few people, if any, get home help at weekends. This weekend was a long weekend due to the public holiday on Monday and, therefore, people went for three days without home help.

The people I am talking about do not get better at the weekend. They do not rise like Lazarus and go to a function or a ball because they are still in the same fix on Saturday and Sunday as they were on the other five days of the week. They need proper funding to be seen at weekends also. Many of these people are living alone and do not have any family. The Government has five ministerial office holders in the Department of Health and gave €950 million more to the HSE this year, or so it says, but things have not improved in these three areas. I ask the Government to do something about these situations which are not fair to vulnerable people.

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