Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As we debate another Private Members' motion on waiting lists, it is important to remember that regardless of the waiting figures associated with each motion I for one cannot say that I, in my more than 22 years as a Dáil Deputy, have ever seen a Government sufficiently shocked and shamed into action. It has never happened. Put simply, if the severity of the October overcrowding figures were accepted by Government and Fianna Fáil, the outcome of this evening's motion would be change. But Fianna Fáil is only here for the shock and not for the action, as the record demonstrates.

We must remember what remains constant in our debates on hospital overcrowding. That constant is the lived experience of those who linger on trolleys or hospital chairs. As of this morning, I am told there are ten people on trolleys without a bed at Cavan General Hospital in my constituency. The relatives and friends of those patients will no doubt be worried and distressed that their loved one may be experiencing more pain and discomfort than is necessary. The fact there are only ten makes not a whit of difference to each of those families and those ten people. For them, it is exactly the same distress and suffering as if it were 100 and we had ten times the number of people in that experience.

I also want to point out the distress that this causes front-line staff in our hospitals. Many staff put in long hours and go above and beyond to try and attend to all patients presenting. I can imagine how disheartening it must be, leaving the hospital after a traumatic and hectic day, only to see those very same patients placed overnight in corridors. Nurses have said this to me.

Their work and dedication deserve better. They have the right to be able to leave work having cared for patients to the best of their abilities and knowing that those same patients and others who will present will be afforded hospital beds long before they return to work on the following morning. All too sadly, however, that is not the case.

I note the tendency of the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on health to refer to 2011 as if all was grand up to then and everything started to go bad after that year's general election. The reality is that the NTPF was used extensively in the years 2009 to 2011, inclusive, before being suspended. We have seen the NTPF put to use more recently to reduce waiting lists for surgeries and other inpatient procedures. I hope that Fianna Fáil is not advocating a return to such temporary measures. What we need immediately is for action on the complete implementation of the Sláintecare report. If that were implemented, we would not have to rely on short-term, knee-jerk reactions. Many patients, such as those on the ever-increasing cataract treatment waiting list, have benefitted from the NTPF. I wish them well, but they should not have had to wait, then board buses to travel north, if that was their mode of transport, to receive what was their due in this State as of right.

I wish to refer to those shocking October overcrowding figures. Members of the public who sometimes struggle to understand the current political arrangements in the House often ask how large a scandal would it take for Fianna Fáil to withdraw from its support arrangement with Fine Gael. It will be obvious after tonight that, among the many other scandals of how our citizens are being treated, including in our health services, having more than 100,000 patients without hospital beds so far this year is not shocking or outrageous enough for Fianna Fáil to put an end to this sell-out arrangement and pull the plug, which is what should happen.

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