Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Labour Party believes in a fully funded, single-tier public health service. I was part of the team that spent 11 months writing Sláintecare. An extraordinary series of leaks was reported in the Business Post, revealing a dysfunctional relationship between the Department of Health and the HSE. That leads me to believe we are further away than we have ever been from the single-tier public health service we desire. To be frank, the commentary in the meeting that was the subject of the leak was quite derogatory from a relationship point of view as regards how we are ever going to achieve the service we want. The relationship between the HSE and the Department of Health is obviously going to be damaged. I believe I can vouch that this is the case.

Also worrying is how that will impact on the real lives of people. Officials in the Department of Health are saying that the idea we will recruit 10,000 people this year is, and I apologise in advance for the language used by one of the officials, "batshit". That is what those officials think about the recruitment of 10,000 people we need for our health service. There were many other similar comments. This was the type of meeting that was going on in the Department of Health relating to the necessary recruitment in our health service. What does that say about the Department of Health? What does it say about the Minister for Health and how the Department is being run? In fairness to the two junior Ministers who were on "Morning Ireland" the past two mornings, they tried to give some account of it but the Minister for Health is accountable. This comes after some terrible information emerging regarding the recruitment of a consultant psychiatrist in south Kerry. We know that 700 consultant posts are vacant. We know from Simon Carswell in The Irish Timesabout the shortage of GPs across the country. One in five GPs is expected to retire by the end of the decade. We need 2,000 more. In 13 GP areas, medical cardholders have been without a permanent doctor for over a year. There are 26 vacancies on General Medical Services, GMS, panels, covering 17,000 patients. It goes on and on. Many of us know of towns across Ireland that have no GP. We have an opportunity post Covid to put in place what we need and desire, that is, a single-tier public health service. The long-term health impacts of a lack of continuity of care and the difficulty of getting an appointment will cause even more waiting lists and issues.

Evidence from the UK shows that earlier intervention and having extra GPs per head of population saves people from acute and chronic illnesses.

We have a huge problem. We know that there are issues in respect of the relationship between the Department of Health and the HSE. I want to ask the Taoiseach quite clearly on the floor of the Dáil of he believes that we will recruit the necessary 10,000 staff for our health services this year. What plans does he have to ensure that we will resource the adequate number of GPs we desperately need across the country?

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