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

As Deputy Ó Caoláin has said, Sinn Féin will give the Bill our wholehearted support and would like to compliment Deputy Harty on bringing forward this proposal to put healthcare into the Constitution as a fundamental right that people deserve in life. There should be a structure in society to keep people healthy.

One of the founding documents of democracy was The Republicby Plato. In it, he wrote about health and justice as two of the fundamental things that any society should be able to provide for its citizens. That is exactly what we need to be able to do and it is more than appropriate that an entitlement to healthcare be in the Constitution.

There has been some talk of legal issues. I read the digest and much of it was about the legal nightmare that the Bill could create. The reality is that, if the Bill is worded properly, that will not be the case. As Deputy Ó Caoláin referenced, if the Sláintecare model is implemented in full, as has been committed to by all in this House, we have nothing to fear by putting healthcare as an absolute right in our Constitution.

The difficulty is, of course, that currently people's experiences around the country are negative when it comes to delivering healthcare for all. A recent example only came to my notice today. In the Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal areas of the north west, people are waiting to see a counsellor under the primary care model and, at the moment, that waiting list is growing out of control because the budget that was in place for it has been spent and there is no budget to continue it.

People are being referred by GPs for counselling but those referrals are not being processed. We have a major problem in that area alone but it is an example of problems in many areas.

An aspect of healthcare that often goes under the radar is community mental health services. That is a primary right that people should have and it should be deliverable within the context of the type of legislation before us. An example in that regard is the clip on YouTube by Leah Cull, which the Minister said he would watch, about health services. She lost both her brother and her father because of the failure of the mental health services in the north west. Those failures are what drives people like Deputy Harty and many of us to come into this House and say that the right to health should be a constitutional right for every citizen, that every citizen should be protected by the State and to ensure that it is delivered. No Government can hide behind statistics, a lack of money or a problem with this, that or the other. The Government must not hide from its obligation to its citizens to provide healthcare for them.

The Government amendment will kick this issue six months down the road.

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