David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

"I acknowledge that in some cases, access to the service may take longer than we would like" is the only sentence in the Minister of State's speech with which I agree but it understates the position. It is not the case that it may take longer, it will take longer and for some people who need home help, it will not happen at all. The problem with the approach of the Minister of State and Government to this issue is the same problem with Fine Gael's approach to public services. It sees everything through an economic prism and believes that people are here to serve the economy instead of the economy being there to serve the people. The Government sets out its health budget knowing full well that it is understated. We see an overrun or get close to one and what does the Government do? It has to cut back and then says they are not cuts because it does not allocate the money that is needed for all of these services in the first place. The Government does not look at people as people who need to be looked after and cared for and in terms of building a society and fairness. It looks at everything as being driven by economic needs. Members of the Government are almost actuaries. They are not politicians or Ministers who are there to look after the welfare of individuals. They are almost accountants and actuaries who see everything in terms of cents and euros and not in terms of what people actually need.

Even if the Government was to look at this from an economic perspective, it does not make sense. If the Government does not provide the home help that people need, what is the alternative? What is the alternative for somebody who does not get the help he or she needs in his or her home but is taking up in an acute hospital bed and cannot be discharged because the home help hours, home care packages and all of the other supports that should be in place are not there? What is the economic cost? It costs more. The fault line in this Government's approach to this issue from the get go is that every year, and Deputies O'Reilly and Pearse Doherty will say so when it comes to budget time, it does not allocate enough to health. When a Government does not allocate enough to health and prunes back the expenditure that is necessary, it ends up having to tell hospital managers across the State and the home help service that they must come in on budget and cut their services, which is what happened. The victims are people who need home help. The Government should stop looking at an economy as something that people are there to serve. The economy is there to serve people and citizens and if we cannot look after people who need home help - older people who need to be supported in their homes - what can we do? I commend this motion and welcome the fact that Fianna Fáil will at least table its own amendment and give some support. The fact that, again, this Government is not supporting this motion and is turning its face away from it is wrong.

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