Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Instead of a motion on mandatory open disclosure, a more fitting motion would have been one of no confidence in the Government. I do not believe addressing mandatory disclosure will change anything as long as we have Fine Gael in power with Fianna Fáil in support or vice versa. We will continue to see scandal after scandal as long as the two establishment parties continue to play musical chairs across the Chamber. After all the competitive outrage between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in recent weeks during the CervicalCheck scandal, we are still no closer to holding those responsible to account. The reason no one has been held to account is because those responsible are in a partnership for Government. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have engaged in a disingenuous exchange, blaming the so-called HSE culture. It is a convenient culprit with no individual to blame. The refusal to call for Tony O'Brien's resignation was an attempt to save face. The thinking is it is far better if someone else talks the blame in order that Ministers will not be held to account instead. The partners in government, including the Independent Alliance, the Labour Party in the previous Government and other parties have also failed to hold the establishment parties to account for their outright failure to deliver for women in this country.

What is being played out in the Dáil is disingenuous, given how Fianna Fáil almost brought down the Government over a bunch of emails from the Department of Justice and Equality. Yet, the party recoils when asked if the death of women in this instance would lead them to do the same.

We are at risk of becoming a parody of ourselves if we have not already done so. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael jointly and separately shaped the health system we have today. Therefore, they are wholly responsible for the inadequacies and failings of women in the State. As the authors of our monolithic health service, the two main political parties have facilitated the increasing privatisation of health provision throughout the country by radically moving away from the notion of healthcare as a right. Since the establishment of the State we have never had a public healthcare system. Even in post-war Europe, while other countries developed their health systems, Ireland had the Catholic Church in control of our health. It put aside notions of free and accessible healthcare while viewing them as an interference on family life.

Fianna Fáil, alongside the Progressive Democrats, invented the two-tier health system. Meanwhile, Fine Gael has explicitly pushed the HSE towards a private enterprise model. The bottom line will become the sole motivation of health chiefs. Healthcare provision is ultimately being compromised as the system is owned and run by special interest groups intent on maximising profit. Successive Governments have also been keen to treat our public health system like a private entity by incorporating management systems that view individuals as statistics rather than in human terms.

Outsourcing is another sign of the encroaching privatisation of our health service. Outsourcing is essentially transferring control and accountability to private sector organisations. The HSE chose to avail of the laboratories outside the State despite concerns regarding the preservation of quality control across two jurisdictions. If we keep the same parties in government, we will only see more and more outsourcing of essential services when we really need to move towards a publically controlled and universally accessible single-tier national health service. We need to view healthcare as a fundamental right.

I twice introduced a Bill to enshrine economic, social and cultural rights in the Constitution, including the right to healthcare. Both times, Fine Gael voted down the Bill while Fianna Fáil abstained. It is clear we will never develop a rights-based approach as long as the two establishment parties are in power.

It is no coincidence that these systematic failures have happened on the grounds of women's healthcare. These failures include the death of women under the eighth amendment, the countless women who have undergone symphysiotomy procedures, the needless death of newborns in Portlaoise hospital or the scandal today with CervicalCheck. Male chauvinism has been a persistent feature of the HSE and Government. Women outside these Chamber walls are sick of seeing crocodile tears and listening to male politicians verbally dissecting their bodies again and again for political gain. Women do not need a scapegoat. They need an alternative to the current Government. They need a government that can provide an adequate health service to meet the needs of women in the country and to hold itself to account.

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