Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to address medical cards and the change in legislation about the amount of money allowable. That should be changed as soon as possible because the delay in getting that through is stopping people from qualifying for medical cards currently. I thank the people who work in the medical card processing unit most sincerely. There are many times when urgent cases need to have medical cards processed quickly and I want the Minister, if he has a chance today, to thank those people who work in the medical card processing unit. I believe they give us all a great service. We try to work together on behalf of our constituents.

Since it would be remiss of me not to do so today, and I said it in the first hour that Deputy Donnelly was Minister for Health, I raise the case of Ronan Foley from Dungeel in Killorglin. He has a 90° curve in his spine. I acknowledge that the Minister is working diligently on his case but I want him to keep working diligently and to stand up here some day and be able to say that he is glad that he is the Minister who ensured that Ronan's operation is performed as soon as is humanly possible. I hate singling out a case on the record of the Dáil like this but I am doing so with the family's full permission because all they want is to get that operation done. I know the Minister is entirely committed to doing that. I am not fighting with him but thanking him.

Another terribly important issue is the question of why in the name of God we should have people who are in pain waiting to have hip and knee operations or cataracts removed. At the same time, I and others can organise trips to the North and get the State to pay for those operations. It is wrong. We should not have to do that. I am ashamed that that service has to be organised by politicians. I would like Deputy Donnelly to be the Minister who stands up here one day and says that people will no longer have to go to the North to get a cataract removed or to get a hip operation carried out in the North because they are in such pain here. I would like for that to happen in the Minister's term. Will he work to make sure that happens?

If we can pay to have it done in the North under the cross-border directive, why can we not get it here? We have excellent operating theatres and surgeons and the capability to do it here. Why can we not organise it? It does not make sense that on a Sunday morning, I can have a team of surgeons that will go into hospital in Belfast and operate on cataracts for as many as 20 people, while if one were to ask for that to be done here, we would be told that it cannot be done. Why can it not? It is like having a digger for hire. It can work as well on a Sunday as on a Monday or a Saturday. It will work as well at 12 o'clock at night as at 12 o'clock in the day. I know there are safety concerns about an operating theatre in a hospital, but things can work safely at odd hours too. If there is a backlog of people waiting, it is like having a crowd waiting for sandwiches, where one would then have a crowd making the sandwiches, not just one person. It is the same thing when it comes to health. We have a crowd of people looking for healthcare and for hip and knee operations. They are in pain and they are waiting.

I want to be able to stand here and say "Fair dues to Stephen Donnelly, he was the man who came into health, worked with other people, and made sure that we provided the service that we should provide." Enough money is being put into health. Nobody can argue with the amount of money. The staff, managers, people working in catering, nurses and everyone else is excellent. I have told the Minister before, though he has not been doing it, not to praise the people working in our healthcare service but to pay them. Pay the nurses the money owed to them. A payment agreement was in place that has not been honoured. I ask the Minister please to honour it and pay them. The people working in catering sections have not got an increase in 13 years. That is a long time and the cost of living has gone up a lot. I ask the Minister to pay those people. Do not praise them, pay them. That will be Deputy Donnelly's motto as the Minister for Health. We have much work to do with health and many things to get on with. We need to make sure that people who need medical cards urgently get them. When people are over 70, whatever about the little bit of money that they might or might not have, for God's sake give them a medical card because they deserve it. We should treat them with respect for the work that they have done while living here all their lives.

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