Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk on health insurance and few other things because we have a lot of issues. Everyone who can possibly afford it should have health insurance. I welcome any moves by the Department of Health and the Government to put money into private health insurance to help bring down the premiums or the policies, if that is what will follow. I worry whether the insurance companies will take advantage and increase the premiums again because that seems to be what happens following interventions by the Government, in that those kinds of people take advantage.

There is a lot of concern among people who have private health insurance when they need attention. I know a man who is suffering with his back, who will not be able to sleep and who will be up all night. He will not be seen until the end of February even though he has private health insurance. He has to go through Christmas in that kind of pain but it is the case with several others. A lot of the time it does not seem to matter that you have private health insurance and it does not seem to benefit the sick person in the way it should.

We are short of regular staff in many areas, including in our hospitals, home helps and in all health services. I know a few nurses who have retired. There is a new community hospital due to open in Killarney and they have said they would be available to work a number of hours during the week. Do you know what they got back? It was a letter threatening them that their pensions could be stopped if they did not answer this question about pension abatement. A number of nurses gave their lives to nursing in Kerry - very capable men and women. They are terrified now because they mentioned the fact that they would work a few hours. The end of the letter they got back suggested that their pensions might be cut off completely. I want that to be dealt with because it has happened to a number of people in and around Killarney and Tralee who would like to go back to work. I am asking for that to be dealt with.

I mention the new community hospital-nursing home in Killarney. The building is finished but there is no date for the transfer. I do not know if it can happen in the depths of winter but it needs to happen. Are the staff in place? Are they organised? When will it be fully open? A lot of people, including elected representatives, sick people and elderly people, are asking about this. So many other things depend on that. We were promised a minor injuries clinic, which is to be opened in St. Columbanus, in the nursing home and long-term bed part of the community hospital in Killarney. A primary care clinic is to be opened in St. Finan's. Is that going to happen? Some respite beds were to be opened. It is not happening at all in Kerry to the extent that it should. People are entitled to four weeks' respite. I raised it in September. People tried to get a few days but some of them did not get them. I know one lady who has not left her mother's side for the past five years and she wanted to go away for a week. She could not get anyone to mind her mother and she could not get respite in Kenmare, Killarney or anywhere. That is the other thing. We have a lot of beds in the likes of Kenmare and Dingle community hospitals that are not open. The beds are there but we do not have the staff, or that is what we are being told. We have been told that now for ten or 12 years. We need to sort that out. It is important.

The other thing that happens is that elderly people who are sick go into UHK. When they are better, because they are well looked after there, they are sent to Kenmare, Killarney community hospital, which I mentioned, Listowel or elsewhere to recuperate for a week or two. Invariably the families say their father, mother or aunt needs another week or two there but it is not available. They are under pressure. It is the same all over our network in Kerry. When people leave UHK, they are promised they will get a home care package. Even after the two or three weeks in the community hospital, there is no home care package. It does not arrive. The people go home, and even though they have been approved for so many hours of home help, it is not provided because the staff or the home helps are not there to come out at the times they are supposed to. If an elderly person is living with them, they are responsible for minding their companion, their partner or their husband but that is not right even though it does the person good to walk around, to get out of bed, to go to the toilet or to go to the kitchen for a cup of tea or something. We could save the nation a fortune if people could be looked after at home with proper home help, with two or three visits each day seven days a week and on bank holidays. If you are elderly and sick, you do not just get better at weekends or on bank holidays. You will not be well enough to go out and have a good time, or anything like that. People need the help but, invariably, it is hard to get it. More often than not they do not have the staff to go out on bank holidays or Sundays. We need to deal with that issue. I am not fighting with the Minister of State. I am only asking on behalf of the people who need this.

I believe we have the best palliative care unit in the country. It is a template for how people should be looked after in their final weeks and days. It is a massive unit and I compliment all the nurses and staff who work there. Their heart goes into the people going in there to finish up. It is tough. I have been there a number of times. Invariably, the patients will thank the staff for doing what they do. We are proud of that unit. When the Minister of State is in Kerry again, she must look at it because it is a template for the rest of the country.

The HSE wants to sell the lands and the buildings at St. Finan's. It does not seem to want to make any use of it. I have never felt that it should sell it because going back in time, Kerry County Council transferred those lands and buildings to the HSE when it took over the health service. There is valuable land there for housing but the HSE wants to sell the whole lot together. The Land Development Agency says it only wants the land. The Minister of State should not to let that happen and not let the Land Development Agency get it like that. We have a lot of young fellas and young girls who want to build their own homes. When you are above €36,000 or €37,000, you will not even get on the housing list. There are people above that, middle income earners, and those sites should be made at least affordable for people in that category, so they could build their own houses. It is impossible to get planning permission in or around Killarney. I ask that it be organised in some way. Get the local authority involved. These sites should be made available to people who want to build their own houses. There are a lot of people waiting on the social housing list. There are lot of houses being built there but the people who have been totally left behind are the working man and woman who want to build their own house. It is failing completely in Kerry. It is not happening there and I ask the Minister of State to deal with that too.

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