Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I welcome the motion and the opportunity to debate an important matter, namely, the use of public resources in the health area. I commend the Fine Gael Party for tabling the motion and the Labour Party is happy to support it. The other aspect of the issue pertains to the question of the development of private health facilities and the impact it is having and will continue to have on public provision in respect of health. This is a matter of enormous interest to the public, given the present state of our health services and, in particular, given the concern about public facilities such as accident and emergency departments in many publically-funded hospitals.

The public knows that at some levels, the public system is underfunded and examples are not hard to find. For instance, it emerged last week that Nenagh General Hospital is short of money and is underfunded to the tune of approximately €1 million this year. This means that cleaners are not being brought into some parts of the hospital and one nurse will be let go from the surgical ward. There are several other implications for the hospital, including the non-renewal of short-term contracts. Such measures have a severe impact on the delivery and quality of service in a public hospital.

Meanwhile, as Senator Finucane has pointed out, private health care facilities are popping up everywhere in the mid-west region. As he noted, this did not happen 20 years ago. Such developments have only begun to happen since the country, happily, has developed great resources and has become prosperous. At present, Ireland has the capacity to fund its public health service to a desirable level. It has the capacity, as private developers have clearly discerned, to develop private facilities in a profitable environment. As Senator Quinn observed earlier, this inevitably leads to the development of a two-tier system. This is a major public policy issue and consequently, a debate is very important.

I have a major concern regarding the underfunding and under-development of public facilities and in respect of the dependence on private facilities to shore up public facilities in some way. The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Tim O'Malley, is familiar with the situation in Limerick. When I query the Health Service Executive locally about matters such as overcrowding in the accident and emergency department in Limerick Regional Hospital or the length of time for which people must wait for service, I am informed that the private hospital is coming on stream and that thereafter, there will be no difficulties.

However, I will respond to this assertion with a quick example. It refers to someone to whom I spoke recently, who was being treated for cancer in Galway. During the course of his treatment, which, happily, has been a success, a certain medical problem developed and a top consultant told him that he needed to go to University College Hospital, Galway. He needed to be admitted to a general hospital which provided an entire range of acute medical services. He spent a day and a half in the accident and emergency department of University College Hospital, Galway, trying to gain admission. Although this man was quite willing to pay for his care entirely privately, at one stage he required admission to a public hospital.

This simply illustrates my argument and that of other Members, namely, private hospitals do not and will never provide the full range of services provided by general hospitals, and in particular by acute general hospitals, because many such services are not profitable. Accident and emergency services are not profitable. Hence, private hospitals will cherry-pick those areas of care which can be provided at a profit. Clearly, that is what they do. It is not hidden and no one operates under any illusions. However, health care should not be about profit. If one is dependent on private hospitals, one is dependant on developers and this leads to the introduction of a two-tier and divided system. As other Members have argued, this is not a good use of public resources.