Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to have an opportunity to comment on this important issue, which affects everybody. The standard of safety and services in our hospital facilities is all-important from the point of view of the public and particularly from the point of view of staff in situations where they may be threatened, attacked, assaulted or whatever the case may be. That is completely intolerable. It is a disgraceful situation when people are doing their work, as they do all of the time, and find they do so with the threat of violence.

I happen to have had a sojourn in one of our major hospitals in the past few weeks, which was an emergency admission as it happened, and that is the place to go if in need of emergency services. My views of the situation as presented are totally at variance with the kind of message I am getting across the floor of the House. The hospital was efficient, effective and well run. There is no doubt the staff were busy and they were on the go all of the time, but that is the nature of the business, and that is the way it is. However, they were courteous and attentive to everybody throughout the accident and emergency department, and they attended assiduously to everybody when they came in. Some people were more seriously ill than others but the standard and quality of the service was second to none. We need to appreciate that and appreciate the kind of work that goes on, day in, day out, 24-7. The same people had to soldier on during Covid. Again and again, they were tested, and they did well.

On a point I have mentioned before in the House, we tend to denigrate the health services to an appalling extent, resulting, to my mind, in a huge drop in the morale of the staff. As we should know in this House, if somebody is being criticised all the time, it eventually punches through and it does not do any good. By all means, we have to bring to the attention of the authorities any shortcomings that we find, and we need to attend to them and ensure we have the best service possible.

I want to comment on the submission of one Opposition speaker regarding Fine Gael being ten years in government when the country was broke and there were no services, and so on and so forth. They should come into the real world, go back ten years and stand where this country was then, when the country was broke and there was nothing happening. People were in serious danger then and services were threatened everywhere. There were countries all over the world in a similar position at that time, and some of them went to the wall and are still there. Yet, somebody comes into the House from the Opposition side to lecture the Members who had responsibility at the time. It is true that Fine Gael and Labour at that time had to take the responsibility, which they did in a difficult time. Everybody else opted out and nobody wanted to deal with the situation. It was not there for them; they only wanted to comment on it. Taking responsibility is a different story, and that is what the Government of the day did. It was difficult and, of course, we paid a huge price for it; the Labour Party paid a huge price and Fine Gael paid a huge price. However, when I hear some people standing up and criticising the parties in government who took responsibility and stood up to the challenges that were put in front of them at that particular time, and pretending they in some way let the country and the people down, I reject that in its entirety.

I ask the people concerned to review themselves and to ask themselves what they were doing at that particular time. Were they assisting? Were they helping out? Did they make the sacrifices that everybody made? We do not know. At some point, one gets fed up listening to the same old tune. Let us give the health service a little bit of recognition for the job it does and will continue to do. As a public representative, I gained great insight from seeing what happened at all levels in the hospitals, including procedures. There had been a massive improvement in the quality of service and the degree to which staff attended to their duties compared with ten or 15 years ago. There had been a great improvement, as one would expect.

On the issue of health and safety insofar as nursing staff are concerned, I incidentally also had experience in that area. A member of the public kicked up a row, threatened members of staff and had to be restrained. However, gardaí and internal security were there. Nobody had to send for anybody. There was no panic. It was dealt with. There were people there to inform, restrain and encourage members of the public who wanted to impress on the staff that they needed to be recognised above and beyond anybody else and to ensure that hospital services were able to continue. Of course, there was a siren going for a good long time but, as I have said, it was dealt with. Nobody's health and safety, including that of the nurses and staff or patients, was in any way threatened because of the activities of one or two people who decided to take the running of the hospital upon themselves for that particular time.

The health services will face a bigger burden in the future than they face now. That is because the population of the country is increasing. We always hear that we have an aging population. I believe people are looking at me when they mention that. I am not so sure about that. However, the fact of the matter is that the proportion of our population comprising older people is not going up nearly as fast as the same proportion in populations across Europe because an awful lot of young people are returning to this country and a lot of young people are coming into this country. They are all taxpayers and contributing to the economy in a meaningful way. We need to recognise that they are part and parcel of the delivery of the services. Notwithstanding the increasing population, everybody contributes and will continue to do so. That is a positive thing and a very helpful sign for the future. Long may it continue.

The last point I will make is about the personal attention that patients expect when going to hospital, depending on their degree of vulnerability. I had first sight of really horrendous cases right throughout the ward on which I was. It was great to see the fortitude of the patients. They are there for a particular purpose. They need to be attended to and they were grateful for that attendance. At the same time, I was amazed at the extent to which some people continued to work. They were working on computers at the same time. The general attitude was that they should continue. Whatever job they were at, they continued, and they received the services as required.

Contrary to some of the points raised, although not by everybody, I believe that we need to pay great tribute to our health service workers now more than at any other time because they have been through the mill and they carried the can of responsibility, which was big, when they had to. The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach mentioned recent events at Wexford General Hospital. I believe everybody wanted the rescue efforts to fail. That is the impression I got. However, in actual fact, what happened was a credit to the health services. Everybody rowed in at the time that was required and did the job that had to be done. There was no need for anybody to point the finger at anyone at any time anywhere throughout the operation. It was done effectively and efficiently and was a credit to the delivery of health services. If the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach wants me to go on for another two minutes, I will.

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