Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is regulated but my point is that the regulator - as is the case with most regulators - is useless. We have seen it in the insurance industry and in the context of energy prices. Look at the concrete industry. It is a cabal of the highest order and the regulator is doing nothing. All the smaller people are being forced out of business and gobbled up. We have regulators and legislation but both are ineffective. This is true across the board. We saw what happened with the banking regulator. The same illness has spread across to health, an area one would think would have a clean bill of health, but they are not being regulated. If they were, RTÉ would not have to go in and expose what is happening. I am surprised the Minister is not aware that people are asked to sign forms when they enter hospital. This happens all the time.

I mentioned what Barry Desmond tried to do 30 years ago. I was not in politics at the time but he was fighting this battle. Why is it taking for ever? Are they too powerful to fight? Consultants should have their own facilities to treat private patients. We can do it. Someone can go to the Mater Private Hospital and be in and out. It is streamlined from start to finish like any private hospital I have visited. "Conveyer belt" is the wrong term to use but it is efficient. When someone is called for an appointment, it is not done the way it is done in public hospitals where 100 people could have appointments for the same time. That is incompetence of the highest order and it causes stress and trauma, blocks up the place and is frustrating. One sees managers running up and down with flipcharts and they are managing chaos - because it is chaos. It should not be this way. Private hospitals in Kilkenny, Waterford and Galway can do it. They are efficient and patients get the treatment. They pay for it but they get it. If someone goes into the public hospital for treatment, he or she will not get it but he or she will be charged for it out of his or her medical insurance. It is difficult to understand what goes on. The nurses and other front-line staff are doing great work trying to do what they can but there is no throughput. Every Christmas, and it will happen this year as sure as it will get dark tonight, there will be bedlam in every hospital because hospital administration offices close down for nearly three weeks. The last week of work involves parties and celebrations. This is a fact. It will be bedlam. When we come back on 11 or 12 January, nobody will be called because nothing is going out. This happens every year. If we are honest, we know this happens. We cannot continue to allow it. One could not do that in any private company because one would be out of business by March if one just abandoned the place and left a skeleton staff. It happens, including in my local hospital.

I heard a very disturbing report on my local radio station about a young man who lost his life in a hospital in Cork some years ago. The report in question related to the inquest into his death. His solicitor, Cian O'Carroll of Cian O'Carroll Solicitors in Cashel, spoke on the radio about this tragic case. The young man had visited the hospital with a violent headache and was went home on three occasions. The hospital never carried out the proper procedures and did not follow protocol.

The protocols are laid down but the hospital did not follow them. I want the Minister to investigate that because the family involved got no satisfaction at the coroner's court in Cork. The young man died in Cork.

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