Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The overcrowding we have witnessed in our hospitals this winter represents an inhumane, unsafe, undignified health service. We need radical action. Unfortunately, few people have confidence that this Government will deliver that because the cause of the unrelenting crisis in our health services is the policy agendas pursued by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments. I have seen it happening in real time in my political life in my county of Monaghan. I saw local elected representatives but, more important, local communities warn Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments that if they were to remove services from Monaghan hospital, it would lead to increased pressure on Drogheda and Cavan emergency departments. That is what happened. We warned about this. I was actively involved in pursuing Ministers for Health in respect of a GP shortage that we were seeing in County Monaghan as far back as five years ago. Ministers say it is an operational matter. What did the HSE say? It said there was no shortage at all. Now throughout the State we have a recognition that primary care is in disarray. At least two decades of negligence have come home to roost. There are fewer acute inpatient hospital beds in hospitals than 25 years ago. In 2022, there was not a single day when there were fewer than 300 people waiting on trolleys. It is a scandal but the solutions are there. We do not need to learn any more lessons. We need to implement the plan that Deputy Cullinane outlined because overcrowding was declared a national emergency as far back as 2006. It has been allowed under the Minister’s watch and the watch of his predecessors to become the new normal. However, it is not normal. It is a national disgrace and it needs to be addressed. We need to implement the measures that Deputy Cullinane outlined such as adopting the multi-annual plan to increase the number of public beds, including more acute inpatient and sub-acute hospital beds and community step-down beds. We also need to speed up admissions and discharges. Most important, we need to ensure that those thousands of Irish healthcare workers who are scattered to the four corners of the world are brought home and that those currently envisaging such a prospect are enticed to stay here. What we need is for the Department and the Government to use a fraction of the effort they used to ensure that the Secretary General of the Minister’s Department is one of the highest-paid civil servants in the world. They should use a fraction of that manoeuvring to ensure our healthcare workers remain in our health service and are proud to do so, and we can be proud of the work they are doing on behalf of all our patients.

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