Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Right now, below in Kerry, there are patients who have been lying for more than five hours in the ambulances parked outside in the yard. I will give the ages of some of the people who have been waiting on trolleys for up to 60 hours. There is a lady of 99, a lady of 98, a lady of 86 and a man of 90. They have been waiting for 60 hours in emergency departments underneath lights that cannot be turned off. They are so bright but cannot be turned off or down because they are fire lights. They have to be left on. The patients have been in the corridors for 60 hours.

I thank and compliment the hard-working staff working last night, today and tonight, including doctors and nurses. My God, what has gone wrong in a country when, at a critical time today, our emergency department could not function as such? It is very doubtful that if there had been a road traffic accident, the victims could have been brought to it because it was ceasing to function since there was not a trolley, bed or capacity. It has never been as bad as it is right now. Somebody has to stand up here tonight and talk about Kerry University Hospital and what is happening in the emergency department there. My God, it is not the fault of the staff. What has gone wrong with management and the HSE? They should hang their heads in shame tonight. Anybody who doubts me may check the records to see the ages of the patients and think about the fact that there are patients in ambulances for five hours. There are people with pressure sores who cannot be moved anywhere because they have not yet gone through the emergency department.

It is so frightening that the answer of the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to the fuel price increase is to drive slowly, which he believes will make everything fine. I hate talking about somebody when he is not present but I ask the him to get into the real world. He should tell a man who is hauling a big lorryload of timber over county bounds tomorrow at 4.30 a.m. to go easy. I will tell the Minister what will happen: the driver will shudder to a halt. He should tell a fisherman sailing out into the ocean to catch a shoal of fish to slow down, turn down his revs a small bit and that he will be fine. This is such rubbish and nonsense. The Minister should tell a man driving a tractor to spread slurry or plough a field - please God, he will be able to plough a field again - to turn down his revs and that he will be all right because his fuel will last a lot longer. He should tell a travelling salesman working very hard to deliver bread or milk or the drivers of lorries delivering vegetables. We are an island nation; nothing drops in out of the sky. The Minister should tell all the road hauliers that if they slow down and crawl away, they will be fine and that the cost of fuel will make no difference to them. I swear to God that anybody attached to or having anything to do with the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green group at the moment would want to be ashamed to their bones. I mean it. How they can stand over this type of nonsense is beyond belief.

What we are facing as a nation is unprecedented, but, my God, what about the crowd we have in charge? In this regard, I heard today some of the waffle, rubbish and nonsense that come out of Taoiseach’s mouth, having given the farmers and all the people involved in the agricultural sector and building industry a reduction of 2 cent per litre. Does the Government know what it is after doing? I never in my life did anything rude and I am doing it at the ground. This is what it is doing. I am not doing it to the Minister. The Government is giving the two fingers or one finger, or whatever it likes, to the whole industry. Shame on it for that. To every one of the farmers, fishermen and agricultural contractors of Ireland, let the message go out of Dáil Éireann loudly tonight that they are worth 2 cent per litre according to the Government. Every Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green politician who will ever again knock on a door will be remembered for this. It is like long ago when the farthing was taken off the pension. The people of Ireland will say the Government is the crowd that gave them 2 cent a litre and that this is what they were believed to be worth when agricultural diesel was €1.50 per litre. The right price would be 45 cent a litre but the Government is giving the farmers a reduction of 2 cent per litre. My God, it is a fair insult to the hard-working people in the sector.

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