Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Bhí. He grew some hair.

I join the Ceann Comhairle in welcoming our guests and wish them every success in their talks. If they know what is going on, they might let us know.

Yesterday the Taoiseach talked about being interested in the next generation and not the next election. The Tánaiste will excuse my scepticism about his remarks when one looks at today's newspapers; the heat must be getting to him in more ways than one. Nobody in this House would object to any plans for the next generation - we are discussing them here today - but we also have to think about the current generation and the pressures people are experiencing in their daily lives.

It is all very well to talk about the macro-investments in health and education being the highest in the OECD with €10 billion in education and €15 billion in health, but the reality on the ground is very different. Families and patients are being made wait longer than ever with more than 7,000 people on waiting lists. This day last week we discussed the 6,181 children on CAMHS waiting lists. Some 6,400 people are waiting for home support hours which have been approved, but they cannot get them. Waiting lists for assessments of need under the Disability Act are the longest ever in many counties and the number of consultant vacancies is at its highest ever. Approximately 450 approved consultant posts, 15% of the total in the country, cannot be filled on a permanent basis. Our acute hospitals and our mental health services are finding it impossible to recruit and retain the number of consultants required to provide services to the people on these waiting lists.

We spoke last week about Dr. Kieran Moore. I remind the Tánaiste again of his comments when he resigned as a CAMHS consultant in Wexford and Waterford. He said: "I am resigning from Wexford because it is untenable and unsafe. Two of my colleagues are doing the same." He went on to say: "Patients are coming into a building that is in a state because staff are burned out." He said that the mental health services required continual funding and it was also about "looking after the people who look after the patients."

Many of the consultant vacancies are being filled by agency posts at up to three times the salary being paid to new-entrant consultants. The cost for agency consultants specifically comes to more than €100 million a year. Consultants are retiring early, as Dr. Moore has, because of low morale, pressure on the service and their inability to give the best service to their patients. We need consultants to lead our health services and to deliver to people on waiting lists.

What is the Government doing to ensure these vacancies are filled? This is the time of year for turnaround in hospitals for consultants. How many hospitals will be left without consultant-led services and how many more people will join the 700,000 already on waiting lists on the Government's watch?

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