Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I am delighted to speak on this Bill.

Indeed, I was in the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach's chair when the Minister of State was speaking. I always listen to the Minister of State's speeches and learn from them and take them for she is succinct and to the point and not afraid to call a spade a spade.

There are many aspects to this Bill but the thrust of it, I suppose, is that we are enabling and putting funds out of stamp duty and other areas towards the insurance companies for them to mitigate the charges to the people paying for the insurance premiums. They might be doing that in some small way but they are milking - high and dry - the insurance customers. We have regulators here for everything and anything. We have the CRU and God knows what else. Why can someone not stop the insurance companies from the gouging? Then it continues in the private hospitals.

I have no hang-ups for private hospitals. I have been sick recently and I have been in a public hospital mainly, in South Tipperary General, and indeed, in St. Vincent's public. I was there again last week. I had occasion to go to Whitfield last week and Deputy Cullinane was in the Chair when I was speaking. The Deputy spoke earlier giving out about private. Whitfield was packed. What kind of problems would we have if we did not have the private hospitals? We have to have a bit of both. We have to have no ideological hang-ups, as Sinn Féin has, that you cannot have private anything.

They are reading from Stalin's little red book, the communist book. They are against everything and want nothing private. The Whitfield was so efficient that morning, last Monday morning week, and so busy. I know I paid a very princely sum of €320 for a consultation and €80 for an X-ray, on top of my insurance. One wonders why people have insurance, but I have no ideological hang-up one way or another.

In his speech the Leas-Cheann Comhairle mentioned that people in Kilkenny are so privileged to have a number of district hospitals. He referred to the one in Thomastown, which is a lovely district hospital. He is lucky. I have no doubt that he and the late Bobby Aylward and others fought to retain those. We also had them in Tipperary. We still have an excellent hospital in St. Theresa's in Clogheen. I could not say enough about it. Fuair my own máthair bás ansin 15 bliana ó shin. My own mother died there. My cousins were treated there with palliative care. HIQA was bedevilling the hospital but we got extra money by fighting. I must mention the late Councillor Con Donovan, a Fianna Fáil councillor who taught me a lot about politics. He fought so hard for that hospital. He was on the health committee with the late Jackie Healy-Rae and told many a funny story about the travails around the south eastern health board and the south western health board. It is an excellent hospital. Sr. Áine was there for years and we had Ann Hally as matron, and now we have Anne Walsh as matron and her team. I could not say enough about the role of matron. They do not call them matrons anymore. They have a fancy title now because the word "matron" is taboo. I would say to bring back the matrons and the hospitals would be clean. I say this always. With this lady, Anne Walsh, and her team, one could not ask for better than the care that elderly people, and the not-so-elderly, get there. There are also two palliative care rooms now, which have been supported greatly by the community, with lots of fundraising. By God, do they give it back in spades with the care and dignity their patients receive.

We also had St. Vincent's in Tipperary town, which closed a long time ago under a Fianna Fáil Government. We had Our Lady's in Cashel, which went as a hospital. Then there is St. Brigid's. I have to go back to St. Brigid's Hospital in Carrick-on-Suir. It was a wonderful hospital. I could be wrong on the number of beds - I think there were 18 of them. It had three palliative care rooms. It was funded and supported by the people. That funding has not been replaced yet either. During Covid, the former Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, decided to second the hospital for Covid care. When they no longer wanted it for Covid care, they said it was not fit for patients. I can never get an answer from the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, or from anyone else, as to how it was fit to treat patients during Covid but it was not fit for patients afterwards. It was down to spacing and separation, according to HIQA. The people of Carrick-on-Suir and east Waterford, and indeed south Kilkenny, used that hospital for palliative care. I know that there are extra palliative care beds in Waterford city, but that is no good for people from all over that area who have to go to Clogheen or to Cluain Árann in Tipperary town where there are two hospital beds as well. Is mór an trua é sin. It is an awful travesty that our hospital was closed. Consider the funding the families gave and the fundraising with all kinds of walks, hunts and bucket collections so that people who were dying could have some dignity, with palliative care and the wonderful nurses there. The head nurse there was Ms Lonergan, since retired. Her husband, Seán Lonergan, was a senior officer in housing. They were two great public officials. They collected money in buckets outside many a funeral. When I went to funerals I saw them raising money for St. Brigid's hospice care in Carrick-on-Suir. That funding has not been appropriated back. We had more meetings than anything else.

The Minister at the time promised there would be a state-of-the-art diabetic centre clinic in the big white elephant there beside it, which is a monstrosity. St. Brigid's Hospital in Carrick-on-Suir will be there for centuries to come. It is a solid building. They talk about flooding but that hospital was never flooded in its life. Then they built a cardboard box beside it. That is all it is. You could put your fist through it if you had to. Hey presto, they built it two or three storeys high but it has no lift. If you were building a house for someone in a wheelchair you would have to put in a ramp to make sure it got planning, but they built this with no lift, so we had to put a lift onto it. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, promised us there would be a state-of-the-art diabetic centre, but that is no longer the case. The Minister for Health has stated in replies to parliamentary questions that it is no longer the case. There are no diabetic services now. There is nothing there. We have oceans of officials there and I do not know what else goes on inside in that cardboard box - that is what it is. A little better but not much better. The hospital is empty. Folamh. Dúnta. Tá an doras locked. It is sad. It saddens me. I have had my argument with the Minister of State over it and I do not want to continue on about it but it is a travesty and an injustice. That hospital should be there for the people of Carrick-on-Suir and the communities of south Kilkenny, east Waterford and parts of Tipperary. Is mór an trua an rud sin.

I will move on to the home helps. We have people in hospitals and there are blockages and they cannot go home because they cannot get home helps. We have noticed of late, in the past 18 months, that people have no bother getting approved for home help care but there is no one to do it. They throw them out of the hospital because it looks like they have help. I want to praise the home helps who are there from the highest heaven. They are angels of mercy in the work they do, flying around in their cars on bad roads and for little payment. They do great work and have such empathy for and engagement with their patients. That has all been cut out now, however. The HSE does not even want them to boil the kettle. This is all HSE policy now. They are not carers any more; they just go in and out. I do not know what they are supposed to do but they do it, in spite of ye. The home help hours are approved but then there is no one to do them and people have to go back into hospitals and clog up the accident and emergency departments.

I firmly believe that something must happen with accident and emergency departments. I was in an emergency department one evening lately at a special memorial service for people who have lost babies. I met this gentleman at the door. He was out of his head and abusing everyone and shouting at everyone. There should be a separate place for people who have taken drink or drugs - though not those who are suffering a psychotic attack - and need to attend an emergency department. At the moment they are inside in the emergency departments with a security guard trying to mind them and they upset everyone up and down the corridors. These people should not be brought into accident and emergency departments. They should be brought someplace else and detoxed or hosed down. I will be accused now of being a Methodist. They should not be in accident and emergency departments. They are causing untold grief to other patients. I sat one night in St. Vincent's public hospital accident and emergency department. My God, it was horrendous for the nurses, the other staff and the elderly patients who were there. They were afraid for their lives. In that case, it was a female patient doing it. Patients who are in psychosis are a different matter but those who are there for drug- or drink-related reasons should not be in there. There should be a special place built for them where they can sleep it off with some limited supervision and be dealt with in some other way. They are making life hell for the nurses, doctors, paramedics and security staff. I do not know how many security staff are needed now in St. Joseph's hospital in Clonmel. When my babies were born there20 nó 30 bliain ó shin there was no security and everyone was grand. Now some people want to go in there and misbehave and mistreat the receptionists, the security, the other staff and anyone else, even the poor priest administering the last rites. His name will come to me. Something has to be done to tackle that because it is going on in every hospital, especially at the weekends. It was a Friday night when I was there. It should not be happening. I will hand over to my colleague.

See this speech in context