David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In recent days there was a debate in the Dáil on the health service and, more important, the performance of the Minister for Health. A motion of no confidence was tabled.

While the Minister may have survived that motion it is fair to say he was given the yellow card, not from Opposition Members but by the failure of his own Minister of State, Deputy Róisín Shortall, in her contribution, to fully defend him, his policies and his actions.
It is important to have a debate on the health services in this House. While we were on our summer break, ¤130 million worth of cuts were made. Those cuts could have been prevented if the Minister went after the real waste in the system and if he looked at alternatives to cutting services for people with disabilities or those being cared for, both the infirm and the elderly. That is not the way to bring into being the kind of health service that people want. In the last budget ¤700 million was taken out of our health services. It is projected that over the course of the next number of years a further ¤2 billion will be taken out of the public health service.

There are three critical issues facing the health service in the short to medium term. The first is the promise by the Government and the Minister to deliver universal health insurance. Where is that? If anything, we are going backwards. There is no detail as to how it is going to be rolled out. The Minister should spell out his plans. Second, the Minister abolished the HSE but there is still no detail on what is going to replace it, what new structures will be put in place and how we are going to bring accountability into the health service. Third, there are plans to reconfigure hospital services. In the Leader's own constituency in Waterford and in the south east we will see a reconfiguration of services and new hospital networks. Waterford Regional Hospital is to be aligned to Cork, with the centralisation of services in Cork and a drift of services away from other hospitals in the region. That is what is happening in our health service at the moment. These are critical issues and the health service is one of the most important public services available to citizens. Given what has happened, given the cuts announced while we were on a break - we have not had a chance to discuss them - and given that more cuts are planned because there is still an overrun in the Department's budget, if democracy means anything, space must be provided in this House to have a proper debate on where the cuts should be made. They should not be made to front-line services and services for the most vulnerable in society.