Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----"No". When I asked what I had been contacted about, they told me: housing, homelessness, waiting lists, home help hours and the main story of the past two weeks in Waterford and a matter on which I have been campaigning for the past two years, the lack of 24-7 cardiology cover. I have discussed this issue several times in the Chamber. From 5 o'clock this evening, the cath lab in the south east will be closed.

If a person has a coronary attack in Waterford and needs some kind of cardiology intervention after 5 p.m., the cath lab is closed. It opens eight hours a day, Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and it is closed 16 hours a day. It is also closed all day Saturday and Sunday. Two weeks ago this Sunday, Mr. Thomas Power presented to University Hospital Waterford. Unfortunately, the doors of the state-of-the-art cath lab were closed and there was no interventional cardiologist consultant on duty. Unfortunately, poor Mr. Power was transferred to Cork and died 30 minutes up the road in Dungarvan. He was 39 years of age, newly married and his wife was expecting their first baby. That is what is exercising people at the moment, not the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017.

This morning I attended the launch of the pre-budget submission of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. I thought to myself, "What are we doing?" We are here in Leinster House, but what are we doing as parties and as Government? What are we doing for people? I decided that the Government is spending the whole time being reactive. It is not being proactive. I am speaking about the married couple of 63 years who were separated because of bureaucracy, HSE guidelines, not meeting the criteria and not meeting the rules and regulations. No one in charge with a bit of discretion could say, "Stop, this is wrong." The only way this couple resolved the situation was to contact Joe Duffy's "Liveline" show. I work very hard, like every other Deputy in this House, and I asked myself what it took to make something happen.

I stood on the floor of this House approximately two months ago and raised a Topical Issue matter about a six year old girl in Waterford whose name is Emily. Emily was brain-damaged at birth and is non-verbal. Her mum and dad care for her 24-7. Emily was looking for a ceiling track hoist. The HSE offered her a ground hoist, but unfortunately it was not suitable for her house. I spoke to the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, and to the Minister, Deputy Harris, on two occasions and they fully agreed with me that this child should have a hoist which would make her life that little bit easier. She still has not received that hoist. I asked myself what I should do and whether I should get her parents to ring "Liveline" because, unfortunately, at the moment, it is only when something hits the headlines that anything happens. We have to stop being reactive and become proactive because people are suffering.

Like every other Deputy in the House, I could stand here and talk for 24 hours about all the people who need home help services or who have been on waiting lists for two years. I am the first to accept that we have come through tough times and that we do not have an endless pot of money, but we have to determine what is most important to us. Can we not look after our own citizens such as Emily? There are 700 people in Ireland who have both Down's syndrome and dementia. There are 700 adults, most of whom are in their early 40s. There is one person in Ireland who has Down's syndrome and is 71 years old. That is unheard of, but people with Down's syndrome are living longer. It is fantastic to think that is happening. The majority of these 700 people with Down's syndrome, however, have now developed dementia. They are prone to it. The majority of them live at home with parents who are in their early 70s or hitting their 80s. These parents are very worried about what will happen when they die. As a society, are we doing enough for them? We are not.

I know I have gone off on a bit of a tangent but I appeal to the Minister and the Government to be more proactive and to stop being reactive, because these are real people with real issues. It is regrettable that the proposals put forward by the Government are not for the purpose of achieving genuine reform but instead are for the purpose of appeasing one member of Government whose proposals in this area are ill-considered and deeply flawed. Fianna Fáil remains committed to achieving reform in this area, as outlined in our own Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, which was published in October 2016 by my colleague, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan.

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