Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It has been reported today in the media that there is a wide gap on Brexit between the EU and the UK and the Minister has referred to same. There is certainly a wide gap between Boris Johnson's understanding of the UK Supreme Court judgment and what the judges said. I will borrow from that language in a different area and, while we are talking about gaps, talk about the even wider gap between the Government's commitment to deliver a public health system and the reality on the ground. As the Minister knows, I have raised the matter of University Hospital Galway on many occasions in a constructive manner and I have repeatedly highlighted that the hospital is not fit for purpose. The previous Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, said in 2015 that the accident and emergency department was not fit for purpose. The current leader of Fianna Fáil has repeatedly endorsed this same stance. It is a hospital with 43,000 people on waiting lists. Two theatres were closed in September 2017, of which one is still closed and consultants are writing to us about the catastrophic regional waiting lists. There are 64 nursing vacancies. Today alone, 47 people are on trolleys. I invite any member of the Government to go onto a trolley, even for a day. They should remember the words of Dr. Fergal Hickey in Sligo University Hospital when he said there are 300 premature deaths every year that are directly related to the time patients spend on trolleys. On this day last week, there were 49 people on trolleys in University Hospital Galway and in August, 655 people in total were on trolleys. There is an options appraisal for the future, which is positive, but it has gone into abeyance.

I mention all of that by way of background to the question I will ask. The Minister can relax because it is a simple question. That is a hospital and a public health system creaking at the seams. I will look at primary care now, and according to the Minister for Health, he will focus on developing a strong and efficient primary care system. These words have been used over and over. We look at Galway in relation to primary care, which is essential of itself, but it is also essential to take the pressure off the hospital. Let me give the Minister a specific question and I might get a specific reply. We have 11 posts open in Galway. My colleague, Deputy Pringle, has a letter which details over 100 posts open in Donegal. The list starts with the post of a senior occupational therapist, an audiologist, a physiotherapist, a dental surgeon and so on. The point is they have gone through the process and the Garda vetting and they have got their jobs. Can the Minister imagine that? They have celebrated the fact they have got their jobs but what happens? They are told they cannot take up that position because sanction is needed from Dublin. That is from the letter me and my colleagues have been shown.

Please do not give me rhetoric or something I do not understand. Can the Minister tell me why those people cannot take up their posts if we are seriously interested in providing primary care? As I speak, i gConamara, i gcroílár na Gaeltachta, níl post ann don fhisiteiripe. Tá orthu dul isteach go dtí an chathair. There is nobody covering Connemara and all of the patients seeking physiotherapy have to go into the city. Specifically, is there an embargo or not?

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