Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

There were further revelations about the dysfunction at the heart of the health service in the Business Postat the weekend. Department of Health officials described a horror of waste in the HSE, criticised recruitment targets as incredulous, and expressed concern at their inability to hold the HSE to account.

Concerns about budgets in the HSE went all the way to the top. The Minister himself was said to have spoken directly to the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, about the €514 million supplementary budget for 2020 and to have expressed doubt as to whether it was needed or indeed utilised as intended. When the Business Postsought confirmation on this from the Department, it was told those remarks were hearsay. I am pleased the Minister is in the Chamber today and in a position to confirm whether he had that conversation.

There is a great deal of detail on what has been reported in the past two weeks which raises serious concerns about monumental levels of waste, inefficiency and profligacy within the health service. I want to focus on just one area, which is cancer services. Recently, the Social Democrats introduced a motion calling for hospital charges for cancer patients to be waived and for hospitals to stop using debt collectors to pursue cancer patients for outstanding charges. The Government did not object to our motion but, crucially, it has not acted and it had the opportunity to do so. In advance of the Government’s publishing its measures to combat the cost of living crisis, the Department of Health submitted a proposal that would have seen those charges abolished for everyone. It said it would cost approximately €30 million. The cost for cancer patients would be only a fraction of that figure. The Government opted not to do this and instead made a conscious decision that cancer patients should continue to be charged for chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

How does the Minister think it must feel to be a cancer patient and read what has been revealed in recent weeks about the hundreds of millions of euro going into a black hole in the health service while debt collectors are hounding such patients to repay outstanding debts related to life-saving services?

Did the Minister raise concerns with the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, about the €514 million supplementary budget in 2020? Why is it there are hundreds of millions of euro in the HSE budget for fake recruitment targets but the Minister cannot find the relatively meagre amount that would be required to spare cancer patients the financial burden of paying for their care? Will the Minister commit to abolishing hospital charges, if not for everyone immediately, at least for cancer patients?

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