Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I listened to the response of both Ministers earlier. I commend my Meath colleagues on bringing this motion forward tonight. The downgrading of any services and centralising emergency departments only cause a funnel and it is like gridlock, which I heard some of the earlier speakers say.

In May, the Minister visited Cork where the average waiting time at Cork University Hospital, CUH, is 28.8 hours. At the Mercy University Hospital in Cork, it is 26.8 hours. It was said earlier that anybody over the age of 75 must wait an average of 14 hours for admission to a bed from the emergency department. I live a long way from Navan but I see the same thing happening again. I see something similar in County Tipperary where they are downgrading as well and no doubt we will be here in a couple of weeks discussing that. Even from listening to the Minister earlier, I understand where he is coming from. The problem is that we should be retaining and enhancing services, however.

From listening to the debate coming tonight from the Government's side of the House, it seems to be going away from what the Sláintecare report recommended, which was that everything be community-led and that prevention is better than cure and people should be able to access services. The issue around GPs was mentioned a while ago. If this is going to be the situation in Navan, I would hate to get a heart attack and have to look for a GP referral. It is not possible. I think we really have to go back here. There has to be a massive upgrading because I suspect this is across the board. I see it in my own town and we spoke about it many times. Again, they are downgrading respite services and mental health services and trying to push them all into a central area. The resistance is frightening because it makes things almost impossible to access. I have seen it in many reports and I read pieces today. It is about access to services and we are taking away the vital services. I heard the Minister say that some of the services are not being provided. That is what the speakers on this side of the House said - invest in it and enhance it. We cannot funnel everybody in one area. It is going to end up in gridlock and what happens when we have a funnel like that is that everything piles up and gets dumped and nothing will work. I ask the Minister to please support the motion from this side of the House.

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