Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On 17 December, the Taoiseach’s tenure as Taoiseach will come to an end, at least for now. By that time, he will have been in this House as a Deputy for 33 and a half years. That is some achievement, as is reaching the highest political office in this land and it would be churlish not to congratulate him on that. My question to the Taoiseach is in his experience and in his tenure in this House, can he tell me how the people can effect change? We elect representatives to make decisions on our behalf or we have referendums.

I have repeatedly raised the issue of University Hospital Limerick, UHL, with the Taoiseach and with the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, with the former Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, during this Dáil, as have the other representatives from Clare, Limerick city, Limerick county and the broader mid-west. This week, we learned that 72 non-consultant hospital doctors, NCHDs, made a protected disclosure highlighting a series of near misses at the hospital. They said that patients have to wait more than ten hours for a bed in the unit without any medical attention, while other lost patients are sometimes missed and are left unseen by a doctor for a number of days. They say that many NCHDs do not want to work in UHL and that they actively avoid it because of the working conditions. Many people in my constituency and in neighbouring constituencies do not want to go to hospital there. They are afraid to go to hospital there. Most worryingly, they say that there is a great concern among staff about escalating clinical incidents or important issues to the management. There is a fear of retribution or informal punishments, should a person be identified as suggesting change or discussing pertinent issues in UHL. A similar letter, not a protected disclosure but a letter, was written last year and it is my understanding that there was a witch hunt by senior management to find out who wrote it, where they worked and where they intend to work in the future. That is worrying.

I have raised these issues in UHL with the Taoiseach repeatedly and he has said that it is not for this Government to manage a hospital, but it is a matter for the HSE and for the management. I have repeatedly asked the Taoiseach about cases where they are not managing it adequately. It would appear from this protected disclosure, from the letter that was written last year and from a letter that was written by senior consultants which I also brought to the Taoiseach’s attention, that the system is not working. How then do we effect change? I accept that it is for management in the HSE to run hospitals, but when they are not doing this, what happens?

I could highlight other incidents. I highlighted the National Driver Licence Service, NDLS. A resolution was passed unopposed by this House, but nothing has changed. We got a document from the Ceann Comhairle’s office. It is nice, yellow and it kind of represents parchment, but that is the extent of it. There was a Covid-19 committee on which Deputy Devlin, who is sitting behind the Taoiseach, sat, as did Deputy Donnelly before he became Minister. That produced a report, yet nothing has happened. There has been no accountability for the billions of euro that was spent, a lot of which was squandered, although not all of it. There has been no accountability for the deaths in nursing homes. How, then, can the people effect change? If democracy does not work, then the centre does not hold. An issue the Taoiseach has highlighted often himself is the importance of democracy and the importance of the centre holding, but the centre has to respond to legitimate concerns in order for that system to work.

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