Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome this legislation. I am often critical of the Minister for Health, and rightly so in my opinion, but I welcome his decision to get rid of these punitive charges. As previous speakers said, people can have long-term illnesses which mean they have to attend diabetic clinics, attend for dialysis as well as for many other treatments on a regular basis and the hospital charges mount up. Hospitals charge so much per day up to a certain number of days and those charges can be quite punitive and expensive. People get sick. They go to hospital to get better but they get sick with the fright and the worry of trying to pay these charges. We are talking about genuine, hard-working, decent people who would not owe a penny, not aon phingin amháin, to anybody. They would put money away for their turf delivery, for the milkman or anyone else and there would be no one owed or left short a penny. That is the kind of culture that they were brought up in and want to continue in. They appreciate the staff.

Regarding the car parking and the clamping business that goes on, it is disgusting. People go into hospital, and this happened to me although I am not complaining on my own behalf, and their cars are clamped while they are set down and trying to bring people into the accident and emergency department because there was no ambulance available. Clamping companies have members of the security staff of the hospital accompanying their own staff when they are clamping cars and releasing the clamps. These companies are taking away valuable members of the HSE workforce. They have a contract for clamping but they should carry out their contractual obligations without taking out a member of the security staff of the hospital, which happens in Clonmel. Such security staff are needed in the hospital for many other tasks.

We have to look after the people who are ill and try to support them and make their experience in hospital a happy one rather than imposing punitive charges. We should not be making them sick with worry about the consequences of bills.

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