Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am not sure what the point is of having this session and these statements. There had not been a demand for statements. The Minister and the two Ministers of State have come in here with scripts to try to put the best gloss on things. They have Government, or rather Fianna Fáil, backbenchers coming in and trying to put the best spin on things. I would have thought that the least that could have been done if Government time was being made available for these statements would have been to agree to have questions and answers. I say this because coming in here and just reading out a script is not especially enlightening or helpful. What we, or certainly I, want to be able to do is to ask the Minister questions about the implications of what is a reduced health budget. I think that is also what the public wants to know.

Regarding cancer and stroke programmes, what are the implications of the budget for those? What are the implications then in respect of the existing waiting lists for children's mental health services, for example? We know these are fairly well threadbare. We have had representatives from the Mental Health Commission in with us at an Oireachtas committee. We wish to know what the implications are for the existing huge shortcomings in relation to the disability services, especially those for children. What are the implications for home care? In the middle of this year, the allocated hours were cut and this cut, I notice, goes into next year as well. What about the waiting lists and the demand that will arise towards the end of this year and into next year? What are those people who need home care going to do now if the allocation has been cut?

These are the kinds of questions that we want to hear answers to. The big concern, of course, is that the failure to secure adequate funding for our health service is going to result in a situation where patients will pay the price. This is inevitable. There will be major disappointment on the part of patients and staff because the momentum that had been achieved will, inevitably, slow down. The least we could have had, therefore, would have been questions and answers in a three-and-a-half-hour debate. I just do not know why the Minister did not agree to this and why there is this session. I asked yesterday-----

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