Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to have the opportunity to speak on this Bill. The right to health is a fundamental human right. According to the World Health Organization, health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. For the last number of years the health service has been in crisis. People are waiting long periods of time to be seen by consultants and outpatient clinics while their conditions worsen. Elective surgeries are being cancelled because of excessively long waiting lists and overcrowding in accident and emergency departments. In County Cork, overnight accident and emergency departments were closed in Bantry and Mallow as part of the reconfiguration of services. This left many people concerned that Cork city did not have the necessary additional capacity, and it is now clear that Cork city's hospitals are unable to handle these extra numbers. People say that hindsight is 20:20, but the cows in the field could have told the Minister that those closures would lead to such a situation. Counties Cork and Limerick have the longest waiting times in the country, and the numbers of people waiting on trolleys recently are record breaking. This is not good enough. I have no doubt that these waiting times have caused the deaths of many vulnerable people.

People throughout west Cork, from Mizen Head, Bantry, Castletownbere and all areas in between must wait a ludicrous amount of time for ambulance services to Cork University Hospital, CUH. When they get there, the ambulance service team have to wait to admit them because of the overcrowding in accident and emergency departments. The ambulance services then fail to meet the turnaround times recommended by HIQA and the HSE. This in turn causes even longer waiting times for people relying on the ambulance services. These problems are not caused by the hardworking staff, who are being worked into the ground because this Government is making no real effort to improve their situation. Nurses and midwives are the lowest-paid graduate professionals in our health services, which is not acceptable. It is no wonder that the health service has difficulty recruiting and retaining nurses. People are leaving the country in droves and are looking to improve their standard of living by travelling to Northern Ireland, Wales or the Continent.

I have taken 47 buses to Belfast with Deputy Danny Healy-Rae and people availing of medical procedures such as cataract, hip and knee operations there. I will be booking another five or six trips in the next few weeks because the demand is so high. It is unfortunate that these 15-minute procedures cannot be carried out in Bantry, Mallow, or anywhere else in County Cork.

People are being left to go blind on the Minister's watch. I invite him to accompany us on one of those trips. He will see first hand how people are suffering because they cannot access a 15-minute procedure in their own county. It is very sad. The Government has turned its back on those people, but Ministers are congratulating each other on the expensive hole in the ground which they are funding.

I welcome the introduction of Sláintecare but it is not working on the ground. The lack of community care, as evidenced by the embargo on new home help hours and the scarcity of step-down facilities, has led to many people remaining in acute hospitals for excessive periods even when medically fit for discharge. This, in turn, is causing significant overcrowding in emergency departments.

Ireland has an ageing population. The increasing proportion of elderly and dependent people, particularly in rural Ireland, will lead to greater demand for home help hours. How can we expect to meet future demand for home help hours when we cannot meet current demand? Demand is projected to increase by between 38% and 54% by 2030. The Government needs to look at providing better home care arrangements. It must do so now rather than wait until the crisis worsens.

Carers provide more than 6.5 million hours of care per week in Ireland. On average, they care for their loved ones for almost the equivalent of a 40-hour working week. Almost 9% of them provide full-time, 24-hour unpaid care without a break. Many must wait months from the time of their application for payment. That is outrageous. Many carers give up employment to care for a loved one, yet they are expected to survive without money until their payments finally come through. In some cases, the payment never comes through.

The area of mental health has been neglected and is in crisis. We need to address it urgently. The Mental Health Commission has declared that without investment and major change the level of care provided to vulnerable and distressed individuals will continue to be unsafe and substandard. The Government needs to address this situation at a grassroots level by appointing mental health advisers to support the implementation of a nationwide programme in primary and secondary schools on mental health promotion and well-being. There is an ongoing problem in this area. The lack of out-of-hours and inpatient services means that children are being admitted to adult mental health facilities, which is unacceptable and cannot be justified. I am particularly concerned by the waiting times for children and adults to see a consultant. These people and their families are distraught about the amount of time they must wait for a referral. Emergency response times to child and adolescent mental health issues should not be greater than 72 hours. We need 24-7 access to mental health services. Mental health issues do not take place on a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule. The current services are totally inadequate. The Government needs to fully realise its commitments and adequately invest to improve the mental health of adults and children and to look after the people working in this area.

The Government has let down people with intellectual disabilities in respect of waiting times for assessments and delivery of services. Some children are waiting up to a year and a half or more for an initial assessment and may have to wait another six months for the service to be delivered. Under the Disability Act, children born after 2002 have a statutory entitlement to an assessment of their needs within a six-month period. The Government is failing in its duty to these children under the Act. When children with intellectual disabilities turn 18, their transport to training facilities is withdrawn and they are given a free travel pass. However, many of them are incapable of using these travel services unaccompanied due to their disability. As a result, their parents or carers must drive them many miles to a training centre, which puts a huge burden on families.

There are waiting lists of up to two years for a child with autism to be assessed. There are no supports such as speech and language therapy for those awaiting an assessment.

The Government and previous Fine Gael and Labour Party Governments have presided over a shocking devaluation in our health service. I call on the Government to provide a legal right to health within the Constitution in order to protect our most vulnerable people.

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