Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

In this country, screening for bowel cancer starts at age 60. That is not nearly good enough. In France and Germany, it starts at 50, while the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that screening at 50 be reduced to 45. Ours is at 60, however, and 2,800 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year while 1,000 people die from it. I support the campaign being waged by my constituent, John Paul Ricken, who lost his wife Susan to bowel cancer. John Paul says this country is way behind the curve and he is correct.

He says there is a need for a big increase in public investment; he is right. He says that the screening age must be radically reduced in line with best practice internationally. The motion points to the trolley crisis, the emigration of nurses and health staff and the affordable housing crisis. To retain health staff, we need to get them housed near hospitals and health centres.

Clearly a fightback is needed. I urge health service workers and health service campaigners in this State to look at what is happening in Northern Ireland at the moment. On Thursday morning, I will travel to Belfast where I will spend the day standing on picket lines with health service workers, campaigning for real pay increases and to defend the National Health Service, a service that was won by the struggles of working-class people and built around the idea of a health service for people, not for profit, which would provide healthcare to all people from cradle to the grave. That health service has been run down by both Tory and Labour governments alike over the decades but in particular the past ten years of Tory rule where cuts in investment, lowering of pay and privatisation have been a disaster.

Of course, on the issue of pay, just as the Minister did in this State, Tory ministers praised health service workers as heroes and urged them to be clapped on the back while their conditions worsened. Workers on picket lines are suggesting if they worked in Tesco stores, their pay would not reduce much and it would be a much less stressful job for them. After ten years of austerity, they want inflation-busting pay increases. These strikes are not just about pay but also about defending the National Health Service. It is not possible to have a proper public health service when the staff are burned out. The service cannot recruit and retain staff. It is not possible to have safe levels of staffing because of the huge waiting lists and the stress the staff are under to provide the service.

The comments of the Tory Party chairperson that the strikes are divisive and would help Putin were disgraceful. Many Northern Ireland politicians will be on the picket lines for photo opportunities in coming days. All these politicians, including Sinn Féin politicians by the way, are supporters of the Bengoa report, which has been described by health service campaigners and trade union activists in the health service in the North-----

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