Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I, too, want to show our solidarity to the poor people who died crossing the English Channel in an absolutely awful situation.

This pandemic has shown us many of the good and not so good things about this country. It has shown us who we are and where we want to go. It has brought out the best in our people. Collectively, we have responded to the call of social solidarity to watch out for one another. It has brought many of us together who were never brought together before.

The ongoing public health emergency continues to create anxiety, grief and fear. I would argue that this pandemic raises the question of what is important in society. One of the issues is our health service. We have never before needed it to protect us and care for us more. Last year's general election was a political earthquake. It was a message to the political establishment that people had had enough of the state of our two-tier health service.

Almost a million patients will be on waiting lists by year end, with almost 300,000 people waiting over a year for treatment. There are only three hospital beds per 100,000 population whereas the OECD average is five per 100,000. One in five consultant posts is vacant and our ICU capacity per capitais little more than average for the OECD. We have some of the most dedicated and best educated staff in our health system.

Our two-tier health system has been shown to be deeply flawed and unequal. This is due to the historical legacy of cuts to beds and health resources. We can argue all day about who did what. This Government and previous Governments have advocated for private healthcare competing against the public system. Does the Tánaiste have the stomach to reverse past and present cuts? Can he grasp the challenge that the electorate of the country set for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil when they said this is no longer good enough and public services such as our health system are paramount? We want a universal health system that looks after people, whether they are a millionaire or on social welfare. If we do not have that, there will be a price to pay.

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