Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. Much as I expected, the statement does not go to the heart of it because it refers to an advertisement for a general paediatric consultant's post. I refer to a service for adults, not children. Some 31 adults are waiting to be provided with the service. The paediatric service is available for children who require an insulin pump and they are getting it. The problem arises when they reach 18 years. One such patient is a young woman from south Leitrim who is going to college in Galway. She needs to get an insulin pump and she has been waiting four or five months for it. She cannot get it because there is no one to train her on how to use it. That is unacceptable in this day and age. It is the same for many others. A total of 31 patients in the north west are affected by the delay.

The statement also referred to the new diabetes care unit in Sligo University Hospital, which is proceeding to stage 3 of the tender process, but that is dependent on funding and we still do not have clarity on funding.

It would be useful to know that the funding is to become available. I do not want to stop focusing on the issue I am raising, however. The specific issue I am raising concerns 31 adults who need to get the insulin pump. It has been purchased for them and it is sitting on the shelf to be given to them but they cannot use it because there is no diabetes support and no specialist nurse to train them in its use. These are generally intelligent people who, with a small amount of training and assistance, would be able to make a great leap forward in the treatment of their type 1 diabetes if they could get the pump fitted. It has been denied to them in their area although it is available in other parts of the country. Therefore, the Minister of State can understand the people's frustration.

If the Minister, Deputy Simon Harris, has written to me today, I have not seen the letter yet. I will read it with interest. Let me return to the central point, which is that somebody somewhere is not doing his or her job. That person needs to be held to account. If the Minister will not do so, then we have to hold the Minister to account and say he is not doing his job. Somewhere along the line, the buck stops. The Minister must be prepared to find the individual, sort him or her out and determine what the hell he or she believes his or her job is. The individual is so incompetent that he or she can think that 31 people, for the sake of a little training, can be left to the wind and that letters can be written saying correspondence should be sent to the complaints department. That is what the HSE told the association in Sligo. It is absolutely ridiculous. It is time somebody's head rolled somewhere in the HSE for this kind of incompetence.

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