Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too have concerns about where the funding for this will come from because many aspects of our health service are being let down at present due to the lack of funding. For the greater part of this year, University Hospital Kerry has been suffering because we cannot pay nurses properly. Likewise, we cannot pay consultants properly in University Hospital Kerry. People who cannot pay for hip or knee procedures or for all the other things that go wrong as time and the biological calendar move on are also suffering.

It was said on the radio this morning that we are trying to stall the Bill and take up time. I reject that. We are entitled to highlight what we think is wrong with this Bill as much as any Deputy from Mayo, Dublin or anywhere else. We respect the way the people voted but it is amazing to think that the Minister can find so many millions of euro at the click of a finger with no bother at all.

It is a fact that we are taking people up to Belfast by the busload week after week to allow them to get their sight restored. There is no bother about arranging the buses but what is wrong and tough is that people have to leave places on the crest of the Atlantic Ocean, including Dingle, Cahersiveen and Valentia Island, in the dark of night to travel that long journey up through the midlands, through Dublin and into the North of Ireland to ensure that for their remaining days they will be able to see the world and see the countryside around them. We are not providing that service for them in the South of Ireland and I applaud the people who go that distance to try to save whatever bit of life they have left in them. Some of these people are over 90 years of age and they want their sight to be restored to them but we cannot do it for them here.

When the Minister was appointed, we all wished him well. I said that he was a young man and that I trusted in him to do better than what had been done for the people of Ireland and for the people who needed medical attention before, but to tell the truth he has failed abysmally. We have asked him time after time to visit University Hospital Kerry but he will not do so and does not care. Things are in a shocking order there but the Minister does not care and the Government does not care about the health service that it is not providing but it will provide funding for this.

I do not mind if people who cannot pay are assisted in some way but this will ensure that people who have millions of euro can get a free service. Why can that not apply to the people who want their eyesight restored? Why does that not apply to the people who want to be able to walk and have the use of their legs, hips or knees again? There is no hurry about that but this must be in place by 1 January. Come hell or high water, that is what the Minister wants. I have the same time to speak as any other Deputy and I am not hogging the airwaves or the speaking time, so do not let any other Deputies say that I am because they are blackguarding when they go out on the airwaves and say things like that. I am concerned that we are getting people up in the dark of night to travel to get their eyesight restored and we are inviting people to come down here to have abortions in the South of Ireland and we will pay for it. That is the turnaround we have in this country and I am very worried and disappointed that we are going that way. It is not about saving people at all but about getting rid of people.

Deputies are hurt when we talk about babies rather than foetuses but when they are 20 or 22 weeks old, they are babies and they are entitled to live. We asked that if the baby comes out alive, it will get the same attention as a baby over in the maternity ward would get but the Minister rejected that. When we asked if we could ensure that the little baby would not suffer pain, he rejected that as well. It is all about rushing this through come hell or high water. The Government has not even talked to the doctors or the midwives and it has not gotten assurances about anything.

The Government is rushing it through and bullying people into doing this and if they do not do it, they will be fired. Is that what the Government wants? Is it wrong for us to stand here and ask that those people who have conscientious objections be given the right to object to carrying out this atrocious act? They have the right but the Minister does not seem to want to listen and many of his buddies here are helping to rush this through.

There was no pre-legislative scrutiny but the Government does not want to hear about that. It is case where if a fellow is not saying what the other side is saying, then he should not be talking at all. I am very hurt and disappointed that we are going down this route of paying to get rid of little babies when we will not pay to look after our people who want to be relieved of pain in many different ways with our health service letting them down. The Minister is happy to do that but I am not.

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