Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Excuse me. There are a lot of things in health that the Minister knows more about than I do. In this case, however, the patients were paying €2,500 upfront and were getting €2,000 back, so it was costing about €500, and they were quite happy with that, although they would rather it was done locally. They are now getting €1,170 back, as I know because I am dealing with it every day of the week. That is not much more than half of what they were getting back before. The Minister cannot say I am wrong, even if the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, said I was wrong previously. According to her, everybody who has cancer gets a medical card. My God, if that is the case, she must have a very special situation in her constituency because it is not happening anywhere else.

We have it all the way, right through from birth to death. Older people cannot get a nursing home bed. When the Aperee nursing homes in Bantry, Belgooly and Conna were for sale, the Government should have intervened. The health system is failing the elderly who paid in and worked mortally hard. The Government has let the people down shockingly. The least the Government should do is purchase the nursing homes that are being put out of operation by HIQA, for some reason or another, and save the people. If that was done, at least the people in Bantry, Belgooly and Conna would continue to have that.

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