John Minihan (Progressive Democrats)

Who will decide if the patient is drunk enough to be fined? Will all accident and emergency patients be breathalysed? If not, what will be the test of "drunkenness"? Members are aware of the tests which gardaí must administer when assessing whether a person is drunk. Will doctors be obliged to form an opinion that the patient is sufficiently drunk to be fined? Who will fine the patient? Who will go to court to testify against a patient if a fine is not paid or if a test is disputed? Have Fine Gael and its medical Deputies and candidates checked this with the Medical Council? Will homeless people or those suffering from chronic mental health problems who are drunk be fined if they go to accident and emergency units? What if such people have no money? Will those, young or old, who engage in self-harm and have abused alcohol also be fined at accident and emergency units, even as their lives are being saved?

Fine Gael has become a party that votes for crackpot Marxist motions which its own Members have described in the Dáil as being crazy. It now distances itself from the health policy views expressed by its candidate in Dublin North-West. God help us if the future of health policy making is to be placed in the hands of a small number of medical doctors with extreme and controversial views. While the Mullingar accord may have failed to deliver consensus on policy of substance between Fine Gael and the Labour Party, a voter might expect agreement between a party leader and that party's spokesperson on health.

Members should closely examine Fine Gael's other proposals. The so-called "urgent care centres" will do a sum total of zero for the 25% of people who come to accident and emergency units and who require admission to hospital. These are the people whose waiting times on trolleys are most unacceptable. Its proposal for children under five seems ignorant of the fact that children continue to get sick and require doctors at the ages of six and seven, especially when they go to school.