John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will be as brief as possible. I welcome the Minister and support the Bill. However, like other Members, I will move swiftly along and raise a couple of issues with the Minister.

One of the issues relates to Government policy on co-sharing of services. I spoke to the Minister a number of months ago about the possible use of fire stations for the co-location of ambulances and ambulance personnel. The Minister and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, were supportive of the idea. Following that, a chief ambulance officer for the western region and a chief fire officer for my county agreed a policy document which would bring this about. However, the entire process was eventually frustrated by one official in the county council who said it simply cannot happen. Perhaps the Minister would get involved with the Minister, Deputy Hogan, and let these councils know that where these possible developments might take place, it is Government policy that they should. We talk about saving money and this is a way of doing that. There is no capital investment and only minor overheads.

The second issue I wish to raise is also about saving money. It relates to the home help service, which was mentioned by some Senators, and I have mentioned it to the Minister previously. I have carried out a costing of this proposal. I think the figure for the amount of money saved by taking 600,000 hours out of the home help service is approximately ¤8 million. I am not sure whether it is ¤6 million or ¤8 million. I have suggested previously that if we took on people who are unemployed and put them on community employment schemes - they are already receiving a social welfare payment - for the increase of ¤25 per week they would receive, we could provide the 600,000 hours that were removed from the service at a cost of ¤750,000. The 600,000 hours could be put back into the system for ¤750,000. Therefore, instead of saving ¤8 million, we could save ¤7.25 million if the Minister did things my way. I realise there are issues surrounding taking on community employment applicants and so forth, but they do this under the rural social scheme. It is important that this be considered. It is a way of delivering a quality service at the right price.

An issue arose today and I believe this is the second time I have dealt with such a situation. It relates to people who have poor circulation problems. The Minister will be familiar with this. When there are poor circulation problems there is always a possibility that the patient might have one or both legs amputated. The only machine available for dealing with this is the ArtAssist. I am sure the Minister has heard of it. It is available through the private sector but not in the public system. It is not available free. It is being made available, for example, in University College Hospital Galway, UCHG, to people who have serious circulation problems. I do not know what company has developed this machine but it charges for its use. The cost for a 90 day course of treatment using this machine is approximately ¤1,400, but people simply do not have the money to pay for it. They are medical card holders. A consultant in Galway has written an article about this.

He stated in his article that if this machine was made available for free to people who cannot afford to pay for it, they would save money through avoiding the need for amputations and follow-on care. Those are three ideas that would save money and improve the health service and I would appreciate the Minister's thoughts on them.