Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important subject. A huge debate is going on between the HSE and the Government as to whether there is enough money in the health budget to deal with services over the next 12 months. That is an unfortunate position in which to find ourselves at a time when the country has plenty of money, but I do not mean the Minister should go along and spend that unwisely or throw it at the system. Nevertheless, engagement needs to happen between the Health Service Executive and the Minister in respect of how best to use the public money that has been given to it.

We have heard suggestions there is no accountability in health, with money just spent and no responsibility or whatever. I do not know whether this is part of a plan to bring the HSE to task in respect of its funding, its spending of that funding and the outcomes it has for it, but it is unfortunate that this is going on in the public domain, where there is a debate as to whether there is sufficient money while, at the same time, some people are worried about how they are going to get through the winter.

The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, who is sitting in the Chamber, is from Galway and will know what the emergency department in Galway will be like this winter. People will say there is not enough money to deal with it, and this is what will be going on. The handling of this financial arrangement with the HSE has been done in a very mediocre way and we need to make sure people will act professionally and try to set out what the allocated money is for, what is supposed to be achieved, what the outcome will be and how any shortfall will be made up. We need to be responsible, mature and cognisant of the fact older people and others who are waiting for services such as operations have been on waiting lists for two or two and a half years. They will be waiting for operations and other services and all they are hearing about is whether there is enough money in the budget. This should have been sorted out long before budget day. I cannot believe it was let drift into the public domain without there being a reasonable plan for the people of this country.

This is against the backdrop of there being very good aspects of the health service. Last week, in my constituency, €30 million worth of infrastructure was opened. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, was there. The problem, however, is that that positive is being spoiled or dampened down by this public row that is going on, and I cannot believe it is going on. We have the infrastructure, but we need to get more staff and make sure everything is working properly. We need the X-ray facility that has been long promised for Tuam. It was financed by the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, in 2017 and still it has not been delivered. That is the kind of stuff we should be concentrating on.

We probably have €1.5 billion worth of investment to put into University Hospital Galway and we need to do it. We have the plans to do it, we have Government support to do it, but we need to put a plan in place to deliver it so we have a place where people can work properly and be proud to work rather than working out of prefabs and everything involved with that. This is an unfortunate debate we have to have, all because there has been an amateur approach to the whole budget for health this year. I do not know who to blame for that, and I do not want to be blaming anyone. I want to see it rectified. Genuinely, the bottom line on this is we need the Government and HSE go into a room, close the door, sit down and come out with a plan as to how services will be delivered this year rather than this being something that lingers on. Staff are saying to me how come things have got to where they are. In Tuam, County Galway recently, one of the officials was talking about all of the people employed in the disability sector, and the staff shouted at him that if he halved that figure, he would be nearer the truth. That does not look right, it does not feel right and it is not what is needed if we are trying to deliver a health service with confidence. The Government and the HSE need to do a bit of growing up to make sure we deliver the service and concentrate on what we have to do rather than concentrating on budgets in public.

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