Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

When the unacceptable becomes acceptable we have a major problem not only in our health service, but in society. I know the Minister said over the Christmas period that the trolley crisis is unacceptable - he said the same last year. It is somewhat Orwellian to say it is unacceptable but it is acceptable. It is similar to the housing crisis, whereby the Taoiseach said it was normal. It is abnormal to have 8,000 people in emergency accommodation.

Over the past decade, previous Ministers for Health have described the perennial health crisis as the trolley crisis. People want to know why this happening. There is a reason that everything happens. Due to the fact that we are politicians, there is a political reason that there is a trolley crisis in our health service. That political reason is a political choice on the part of Fine Gael over the past six years and by Fianna Fáil in previous years. Politically and ideologically, thousands of beds were taken out of the health service. As a result, we now have a health crisis.

I have worked in the health system alongside some amazing and fantastic people. However, the demoralisation of health service staff is pretty bad. Front-line staff are demoralised by the ongoing crisis. It is a plague on the houses of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that the crisis is ongoing. The debate earlier today was nauseating. The Taoiseach sparred with Deputy Martin about which beds were taken out of the system in the decade during which Deputy Martin was a Minister. Nobody really wants to know that, rather people want to know that their mothers, fathers or brothers are not left on trolleys. People do not forget that. Seeing one's mother suffer stays in one's mind forever. I know the Minister does not want to see that, but this is the system that has been created as a result of ideology. There is an answer to every question.

In 2018, not one person should be on a trolley, never mind 600. We have a system that the Minister believes in and perhaps he is coming around to Sláintecare and so forth, which is fine, but we have a two-tier health system. Once there is such a system, there will be a perennial crisis such as this. It is not acceptable and normal for anybody to be on a trolley in 2018. If it becomes normal, we can all walk out of this place.

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