Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There was talk about money and leaving people go blind or to leave the hips go. We are not like that at all. We are compassionate people and have compassion for everybody. As for those appalling messes over which the Minister is presiding in the HSE, it gets worse by the hour. We want the Minister to make some effort on that and to have some impact but he is unable to do it. If he had any respect for the Parliament, he would have resigned long ago but that is another area. We make no apology for wanting to help people with cataracts or for the lads bussing them up to Belfast and getting them done under the European directive. The Minister should be ashamed. Meanwhile our medics are going out to Third World countries and doing this operation in field tents for people who are going blind out there. They are doing it voluntarily all over the world. This amendment does not say that we would coerce any pregnant woman to look at an ultrasound.

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