Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On page 82 of the programme for Government, "Working to Make Our Older Years Better Years", the Government promised to keep our older people active and independent in the community. This Saturday and the following Saturday, being St. Patrick's Day, both Deputy Danny Healy-Rae and I have organised two buses to Kingsbridge Private Hospital in Belfast for people to have cataract operations done. These will be the fifth and sixth buses to travel from west Cork, Cork County and Kerry to Northern Ireland in the past few months. I am appalled by the long waiting lists for the elderly and children who must wait for a simple cataract procedure, some waiting four to five years for a 15-minute procedure. For those in the Irish Republic, it is Belfast or blindness. Will this Government take urgent steps to deal with this issue? I am acutely aware that while these older people will be travelling to Belfast for vital cateract procedures to save their sight, our Taoiseach and Ministers and the Tánaiste himself will also be out of the country and spread throughout the world on St. Patrick's Day. I sincerely hope they will spare a thought for the people forced to leave this country for Belfast on that day.

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