Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I made it clear at the start of my contribution that this was a clumsy amendment. As the Minister of State knows, if I tried to word an amendment on this, it would cause a cost on the Exchequer and be ruled out of order. Second, it is disingenuous to talk about the public consultation because officials here have known for years about this issue. This is not the first time I have raised it. I have been consistently raising it every December for a number of years. This has not come as a surprise to anyone.

I know Government has made the decision not to accept the amendment, but the situation is discriminatory and wrong. I gave the Minister of State the example last night of the oral commitments being given in relation to our smaller hospitals. Talk is cheap. If the Government is serious about supporting model 2 hospitals, why do we have this situation? It is not just me saying this. The Minister of State's colleague, an Aire Stáit, Deputy Feighan, is saying it is wrong that we do not have basic sterilisation facilities at Roscommon University Hospital to allow us to expand the number of patients we treat in that hospital through day procedures. On the other side of that coin, when we ask Government to protect the model 2 hospitals and some model 3 hospitals from being discriminated against by an insurer on a number of policies, the Government is not prepared to intervene.

I will not dwell on this because other legislation is coming in but it sends out a clear message to people around this country concerning the approach of the health system to the smaller hospitals. The health system is prepared to turn its back on them when it comes to health policies that are discriminating against people based on geography. We have had all the pontificating from Ministers through the years since this risk equalisation legislation was first proposed about ensuring there would not be discrimination based on age or illness, but we are happy to have discrimination based on geography.

We say we support smaller hospitals but when it comes to putting the lámh into the póca, the health system is not prepared to do it. We are waiting three years for additional information regarding an ongoing review to be completed and a decision made on capital investment to put into an empty room. The room is already built yet we cannot get equipment to provide sterilisation facilities to enable us to treat more people in public hospitals, rather than going through the National Treatment Purchase Fund, where, bizarrely, some of the same doctors carry out the procedures in private hospitals.

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