Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and I thank him for his detailed report. I admire that he is straight, honest and tells it as it is. That is a good trait. He does not flower it up, rather he tells it as it is and says things are not in a good state at times.

I am delighted to hear the Minister give a commitment for an extension of BreastCheck to women between the ages of 65 and 69. I have been campaigning for this extension for some time and I raised it on the Adjournment some time ago. Even though the figures provided by the Minister were disputed at the time by the Irish Cancer Society, I think the society will be very pleased to hear that this extension of the programme will be rolled out.

Senator Daly referred to the ambulance service in County Kerry. The Senator tends to be over-dramatic at times but there are problems with the ambulance service. We have had several meetings with the ambulance service in Kerry and in fairness the chief ambulance officers have always attended the meetings and given us detailed information on the service. However, I was told recently that a person collapsed in a nursing home and needed to be resuscitated. The ambulance service was telephoned and the information was given a few times that the ambulance was ten minutes away but it was 40 minutes before it arrived. At least people should be told the situation as it is - just like the Minister does - rather than fooling people by saying that the ambulance is only ten minutes away when it is nowhere near.

I cannot let the opportunity go without mentioning medical cards. I will not speak about the office dealing with medical cards because that issue is a broken record in so far as I am concerned. I welcome the Minister's statement during the week that terminally-ill patients will not be required to renew their medical cards. That is great news because it was devastating for families to have to provide information time and again and to ask a doctor to state that a mother, husband or wife was going to die. It is not nice. I am delighted that the Minister has addressed that issue.

However, in my view, we have to move away from the current model whereby a medical card entitles a person to a lot of supplementary items such as school transport. Why must a person with a medical card be given free school transport? Why is entitlement to school transport not decided by the Department of Education and Skills? I suggest that the Department could means test people to see whether they have an entitlement to free school transport as is the case for the back to school clothing and footwear allowance. Why must a person with a medical card be exempt from PRSI? The loss of a medical card entails losing so much more than medication or doctor visits, such as home help, a wheelchair and hoist equipment.

I know of a young man with muscular dystrophy who was refused a medical card but it was reinstated on appeal. However, the minute he lost the medical card the HSE contacted him to ask if he wanted to rent or buy a wheelchair and a hoist and the track for the hoist. That is a hard blow to anyone who has just lost the medical card. Thankfully, the young man's medical card was restored on appeal. We need to move away from the current model. These services as I have outlined should be provided independently of a medical card and these facilities should be available without the guarantee of a medical card. For example, the free fuel allowance or a grant for house insulation should be separated from the Department of Health and they should be administered by the appropriate Departments.

Last May I got together with a number of interested stakeholders to put a submission to the national framework for suicide prevention. We made a detailed submission including a call for the development of a national suicide prevention authority to consolidate and co-ordinate the objectives of the existing voluntary suicide prevention organisations with Government funding and sustainable leadership. We carried out research which showed that Australia was one of the first countries to develop a national strategic approach to suicide prevention and these efforts have contributed to a decrease in the rate of suicide. A key element of the success of this programme has been the commitment from the Australian Government to fund suicide prevention programmes. We propose that the national framework for suicide prevention be modelled on the Australian programme, Living is for Everyone - a framework for prevention of suicide and self-harm.

Will the Minister advise the House as to when the results relating to these submissions will be published and indicate the outcome in respect of them?

I welcome the additional €35 million in ring-fenced funding that is being made available in respect of mental health services. We must ensure this money gets through to service users. It is great that people are being moved back into the community. I agree with this policy but I am not in favour of service users being moved outside their own localities. There have been instances where people have been obliged to move many miles away from their homes, families and friends. That is not ideal, particularly in the context of receiving visitors, etc. We should debate mental health issues in the House but I accept this might be work for another day. I am sure the Minister of State with responsibility in this area, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, would come before the House for such a debate.

At a recent meeting, representatives from the HSE and Oireachtas Members discussed the lack of consultants in hospitals. We were informed that it is not the latter which increases the numbers of waiting lists but rather a lack of administrative staff to support consultants. It was also stated at the meeting in question that if given a choice between being allocated an additional nurse or extra administrative staff, consultants would opt for the latter. Consultants have not been able to replace administrative staff who have left their employ and this means there is no one to set up appointments, send out letters, carry out follow-up actions and keep records. This is giving rise to many delays in the context of granting people appointments.

I would appreciate it if the Minister could comment on some of the issues I have raised.