Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)

This Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill may sound technical but its impact is very real. From April onwards, the stamp duty levy on advanced health insurance plans will rise by €48, bringing it to €517 per adult. For families, this will mean an extra €128 a year on top of already soaring premiums, which now average nearly €1,900. These increases will hit households hard at a time when every euro counts. While the levy funds fairness in the system, we cannot ignore the pressure this places on ordinary people. Government must ensure transparency and affordability so fairness does not come at the cost of financial strain. I recently raised in the House the deeply unfair case of a constituent paying €1,470 a year for health insurance who was guaranteed 100% cancer care and was denied access to a life-saving cancer treatment drug when he needed it. Patients should never suffer because of cost-cutting by insurers. After intense media and public pressure, the insurance company agreed to cover the cost but it should never take a public outcry for a patient to get essential treatment. The bottom line is if people pay health insurance and the company tells them they are 100% covered – comprehensively covered is what we call it with car insurance – then when they get something like a serious cancer, they should not be told by the company that they are not covered and it forgot to tell them that. Health insurance companies are looking for extra money but they are not delivering the way they should be.

There are a lot of issues related to health that we need to talk about. I have been fighting for Deerpark Nursing Home for a long time. We have a massive crisis where people cannot get home help, cannot get into a community hospital and cannot get into a nursing home. Sometimes I run into a brick wall because there might not be a bed available or the hospital is full, as it was last week. It was the local community hospital. The local newspaper and I were running with the story but the hospital is full. They cannot put people up in the attic. They have to have a room for them. Deerpark Nursing Home has rooms and I would appreciate the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, getting personally involved in this. He was talking to me recently and I appreciated that. I would just like to get answers. I think there are 12 to 14 rooms available there and they fully meet all the standards. There is an issue because someone went bankrupt or whatever nonsense went on, but it is there for the taking. Beds are desperately needed in west Cork and we cannot understand what the problem is.

There is the same situation in County Galway. Councillor Noel Thomas has told me about the issue in his constituency. Councillor Michael Leainde is a councillor down there for us as well. Some two years ago the people of Galway were promised Áras Mhic Dara nursing home in Carraroe would be fully staffed and all beds open by winter 2024. That promise is not being kept as nine rooms remain empty. This is the problem we have. This is happening in Bantry and in Galway. The respite services are gone and the day care facility has been abandoned. Meanwhile, 12 people are on a waiting list for care they urgently need. Families are being forced to travel long distances for respite and Irish-speaking residents are left without support. This is unacceptable. We need immediate action from the Minister of State, the HSE and the senior Minister to honour commitments and ensure the facility serves the community as intended. Councillor Thomas, after making representations, was told it is hoped to reopen the beds once staffing has been recruited at the start of the new year. The winter of 2024 is gone and we are into the winter of 2025 with no answers. We need the Minister of State to get cracking on this. There are people crying out for this to be done.

We have to have a very serious sit-down discussion about community hospitals and nursing homes too. The problem is the elderly population has risen throughout the country. I am only talking about my own community hospital in Skull, which is probably one of the best in Ireland. There was investment in it by a previous Government, which was top class and I am not going to take anything away from that. There is Beara community hospital, St. Joseph's unit in Bantry General Hospital and the facilities in Dunmanway, Clonakilty, Kinsale, Bandon and Skibbereen. When has an extra bed been put into any of those hospitals? The one in Skull has 21 beds, and I am pretty sure it had 21 beds 20 years ago. We have a rising elderly population and we still do not have an extra bed, so where do people go? A home help service could keep them at home but that has gone too. I do not know why because home help people tell me they are willing to do the hours. Home help supervisors are saying they cannot get the people so there is a con job going on there and nobody seems to want to stand up and say somebody is mocking someone. It is the elderly person on the ground who is suffering. We need to invest in our community hospitals. A lot of investment was given. The former Minister, James Reilly, was the man who gave it to Skull hospital. I was there. That investment was superbly spent and brought the hospital up to a standard that is second to none. I wish the management and staff the very best because they are delivering, along with the staff of all the other community hospitals. However, the bottom line is no extra beds are available.

That community probably has the highest elderly population in Ireland and we have not looked after that population. It is the same up in Donegal. No matter where, community hospitals are not resourced. There are a few like Deerpark Nursing Home and the one in Galway I mentioned that have been built and which we desperately need, but the situation is left to drag on and on.

Another issue is the endoscopy unit was open in Bantry General Hospital. It is a fantastic service and we are absolutely delighted. I praise the Department of Health. It took me years of shouting and roaring here in the Dáil but it worked. We need an MRI unit in Bantry General Hospital and now we have to focus there. That is where the money needs to go next. The stroke unit is being worked on but the MRI unit is of huge importance. Is there a budget available? We have to look at Bantry General Hospital serving parts of Kerry, the Beara Peninsula, the Mizen Peninsula, the Sheep's Head Peninsula and all the way out to Kinsale. I was out canvassing in Kinsale and people asked me what I was doing for Bantry General Hospital. If it is serving a community from Kinsale to Kerry, it is doing something right and it needs to get as many services as possible.

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