Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of Fianna Fáil, I welcome the Lord Mayor of Dublin. In my 12 years I think it is the first time our nearest neighbour and resident has come to visit us. It would be appropriate for me to say that, having been at school with him, I know him very well. It is good to see him here. His contribution and that of his family to enterprise and public service is second to none and one senses there is an air of inevitability about his participation in the Houses.

Despite having had a debate in Private Members' time last week, I join with my colleague, Senator White, in raising the care of the elderly. In response to Senator Mullins, while there are good news items from time to time, as well as positive developments in respect of the statistics now available regarding economic recovery, what divides us politically is how these were achieved. There were choices, irrespective of troika involvement, the involvement of the European Union and so on. As was noted in the debate last week and as Senator White has been highlighting clearly in her own work - she has produced a detailed paper on the matter - while going about these cuts, we have not covered ourselves in glory in respect of the care of the elderly. That is the key message. As was reflected in Labour Party policy, although it did not manage to get it included in the programme for Government, it is and was possible to have collected approximately €300 million from people earning more than €100,000 per year. However, we chose not to do that. The aforementioned €300 million could have left certain people over 70 years of age with their medical cards and could have retained the bereavement grant for families. It could have left in place a variety of measures. Despite the pride of Senator Norris and all Members in the health professionals who work in the health services, the reality is that if one has an elderly relative, one should not put him or her into hospital unless one can be in there with that person for 24 hours a day, because there are not enough front-line staff available to take care of such relatives in a scenario where a single nurse must deal with ten people.