Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are all dealing with a situation where a large number of people engage private health insurance. It amounts to 45% of people in the State. On some level, this Bill, which is a process that we go through every year, is an element of accepting the failure of our system, in that we do not have the public health system that people deserve and require. We all accept the necessity of this legislation and that, through risk equalisation, we insert an element of fairness into a system that is unfair across the board. There has already been much comment on the need to deliver a national health service and the promises of Sláintecare.

That is what Deputy Lahart and others said when they talked about universal, timely access. That is what is required within a system that works. If people had some faith in Sláintecare, it has been rattled by the fact that some of those involved in shaping its delivery have walked away from it. That emphasises the point that we must be serious about this. We need to put a coherent plan in place and deliver upon it.

Deputy Cullinane spoke about some of the other gaps we have in the system. We do not have an adequate primary care system which gives rise to a hospital-centric system. That has created particular difficulties during the pandemic, whereby people who could have their care delivered in the community in primary care and other settings are not getting the care they require, which means more people go through the logjam that is the hospital system. That is before we get into private healthcare being operated in public hospitals.

In the short time remaining, I will deal with waiting lists. We could talk about the numbers in hundreds of thousands. When my youngest child had an issue with glue ear, he required two operations to release it. I heard an interview with a lady whose son had been on a waiting list for 18 months, or possibly even longer, and she spoke about the damage done to his ear during the period. There was a lifelong impact on his learning. That is the cost of the system we have. We must put in place a public healthcare system that delivers for people. It is not beyond the Government to do that.

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