Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If we look around the Public Gallery we see the next generation of people. We are their carers. The vulnerable people in this country are being penalised for caring for people. They are being penalised. The means test for anyone that is caring for somebody should be abolished. It is caring; that is what they are doing. If we look at the money paid to the people at the very top levels of the public health sector who are paid for caring but who do not care, then we realise how much carers do without any reward. In fact, they do without to care for other people. That is the problem.

I wish to bring up an issue that is slightly off topic but is related to health. It relates to a man called John. I will not mention his second name because, God rest him, he died yesterday. He was brought to a nursing home in County Cork with stage four cancer. His sister rang me, pleading and crying down the phone, asking if I could help John. He was brought to a nursing home to be cared for. He had stage four cancer but there was no medication forwarded to the home. The home contacted the HSE in Cork but was told that it could not do anything for John because he was a Limerick man in a Cork nursing home. We then had to get John moved from the Cork nursing home to a Limerick nursing home. The Limerick people could not go to Cork. He was in a Cork nursing home but was a Limerick person. This is the type of bureaucratic bull that is being put in place. This man passed away yesterday. All he wanted was dignity. He wanted to know what was happening and when it would happen. He knew he was going to die but he wanted to die with dignity. All of the bureaucratic bull that is put in place by this Government and the higher levels of the health service stopped this man from dying with dignity. Instead, his family were crying on the phone, wanting to know how we could help.

The Government talks about the carers in this country. They watch over this area and care for all of us. I ask the Government to think of that the next time they put more bureaucratic bull in front of people who are caring for others.

See this speech in context