Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos ba mhaith liom mo chomhghairdeas a ghabháil leis na hAirí, an Teachta Donnelly agus leis an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Butler. I wish them well and offer to work with them on behalf of our group because, my goodness, there is some work to be done in the HSE. I praise the staff who have always worked hard, especially with Covid. This will have a significant impact on our health service. It was bad enough as it was. The impact on people waiting for cervical smear tests, breast checks, bowel screening or whatever it is is substantial since those have all been put back. Procedures for children requiring orthodontic treatment and children with eye problems have been postponed. Deputy Michael Collins and the Healy-Raes brought busloads of people to Belfast to stop people from going blind with just a simple operation. Our medics go out with NGOs and do it in the deserts, in tents and makeshift hospitals in third world countries, yet we cannot do it at home despite that almost €18 billion or €19 billion goes into the health service every year.

I do not know that I welcome the extension to the ages for the medical card because it is a charade. GPs are under enormous pressure. People cannot get a GP. My own daughter got a sting on her hand the other night and there was significant swelling the day after. She tried to get a GP but the GP could not see her, so she was sent to the emergency department. Covid is one thing but we have to treat our people. I have issues with Covid. Everything is about Covid, forgetting about everything else. People get sick. A number of people will die because of neglect, not having appointments and not having checks. It is sad. I relayed some of the cases to the previous Minister relating to people with private health insurance and such. The Ministers have a hard job, including with regard to mental health and older people, but we need fundamental, radical reforms in the HSE and the Department of Health.

The Northern Ireland Assembly people recognise the Sabbath more than we do down here. It is anathema to them to work on the Sabbath and yet they can do fleets of operations on a Sunday. It does not make sense that our medical theatres are closed here, south of the Border, for weekends, bank holidays and the whole shebang. During the height of Covid-19 we saw that Enfer Labs in Kildare did not get a test sent into them from 12 o'clock on the Friday of a bank holiday weekend in June to Tuesday morning. They just stopped. Every Christmas, without fail, we see a disaster in January because holidays are taken, places close, people go off and the whole system is shut down. There are front-line nurses and doctors, and attendants and management, who run the hospitals during those times, but the vast majority of people take their holidays. It should be run like a business.

All of this carry-on with extending the free medical cards to the under-12s is useless because one cannot get a GP or get in. Then there is the poor woman in her madness inside paying €60, if she can get in, but if the GP surgery is overrun, then those people are pushed out of the way. We need to have a fundamental re-examination of this. I believe that every patient should pay something towards a medical card and a prescription. We brought them in some years ago and now there are charges on so many items, it is too much and too high. There needs to be some kind of re-evaluation in that regard. The GPs are under enormous pressure and they can only do so much.

I brought the previous Minister for Health down, and I invite the current Minister for Health down, to Cloonmanagh in the vale of honey, some day perhaps during the holidays, to visit the Mary Street Medical Centre to see the wonderful scanning equipment they have. They could do ultrasound scans. The then Minister, Deputy Harris, came down. That centre applied for a contract to do this because a person can be waiting six or seven months in the hospital. The Mary Street Medical Centre could do the scan there and connect it on to the University Hospital Limerick. The scans could be read by professionals and it would take those people away from accident and emergency departments. It is simple. After I raised this issue in the Dáil day in and day out, and after numerous high-level meetings, including with the Minister, we got a 14-day contract, which is probably the shortest contract ever issued by the HSE. It was then pulled after eight days because there was no funding. Such stopgap measures can provide expertise through the private practices and could be used to help the situation. That has to be done.

Will the Minister please indicate when we are going to stop the Covid-19 spending? I received a reply to a parliamentary question last week and the spending is just mind-boggling and frightening. Money is being thrown at this, that and the other. This will all have to be paid back. I ask the Minister for Health to put on the brakes and have accountability there.

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