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

I wish the new Taoiseach, his Ministers and the Government as a whole all the best during their time in office. We do not know how long that will be but we hope everything goes well because people depend on them.

The health system is a shambles and in need of a serious overhaul. The HSE does not seem to be accountable or providing value for money. As highlighted in the media a few days ago, one HSE manager is being paid €600,000 a year. This issue must be addressed because no man or woman in the country is worth that kind of money in any year for whatever job he or she does. Too many people are on waiting lists. Since my election, I and my brother, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, have been highlighting the cases of people waiting for cataract procedures. The position has still not improved and people are going blind. Youngsters and teenagers are waiting for four or five years for orthodontic treatment. Girls are embarrassed to go out and nearly too embarrassed to go to school because they are waiting for this treatment. It is too late when they are 17 or 18 years of age because their gums have hardened and the treatment does not have the positive effect it should have.

People on the public list must wait for a year and a half or two years for a hip operation. Some of them are unable to sleep at night because they are waiting for operations, which is not fair or right. Two weeks ago, in the middle of summer, 17 or 18 people were on trolleys in Tralee University Hospital. What will happen in winter? Even in Cork University Hospital, people waiting for heart bypass operations have been sent home because no intensive care beds would have been available for them after surgery. That is not acceptable.

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