Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister and the Minister of State well in their new roles. I hope they can change healthcare in this country. I have been listening to and taking part in Dáil debates over the past few weeks and it seems easy for the Government to portray that the increased demand for public services has just come out of the ether.

Population modelling seems to be only considered as an excuse as to why services are strained or broken altogether today. Explaining away the failures of today by stating they will be resolved tomorrow will not work. Nowhere is the case made regarding healthcare services. It has been a complete failure but I hope the Minister can improve it.

Consistent modelling by the CSO and others over a long period has pointed to a growing and ageing population. The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, TILDA, in Trinity College estimated that in 2021 the number of those over the age of 65 would stand at approximately 250,000 people and it was spot on. Circumstances or models may change but there are two consistencies. These are that we should expect a significantly increased older population in decades to come and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, while failing to deliver these services today, also fail to prepare for tomorrow. I would welcome more forward thinking and planning from the Government on the elderly of 2040, 2050 and beyond. What of our people today? The previous Government provided a new stroke strategy. This is welcome but it failed to provide the funding necessary to implement it.

Last month saw a record of almost 14,000 people on trolleys and more than 28,000 hospital appointments were cancelled. Even though the Government says it has doubled the budget to almost €25.8 million this is not working. Something needs to change. Our growing and ageing population is not unforeseen. References to unprecedented population growth or an ageing population from Fine Gael are simply a distraction from its failure to tackle a crisis in our health service today.

Sinn Féin has outlined our planned to future proof care for all of our people. We need to train more GPs. We need to invest in our hospitals. We also need to deliver more care at home. In Monaghan, where I come from, people cannot get a GP and cannot get all of the services we should have in the hospital in Monaghan. They also cannot get care for our elderly. Sinn Féin would invest in our communities to improve lifelong health and well-being-----

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