Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join in the welcome to the Minister and wish him well with a very difficult task. I am sure if he had the opportunity to start with a blank sheet of paper and redesign the health service, there are many things he would do very differently from what he inherited. The Minister said there were enormous demands in and cost pressures on our health service, that health care demands continue to rise due to our growing and ageing population, the increasing incidence of chronic conditions and advances in medical technologies and treatments and that health services around the world are struggling with the issue of rising costs. I think we all accept that. It is welcome that the HSE will have €635 million more to spend this year than it did in 2014. This financial allocation is part of a two-year process to stabilise the health service with a further €174 million being added in in 2016.
The majority of people who interact with the health service will tell one that their experience, in the main, has been positive but there are problems. The Minister was right to devote much of his contribution to the emergency department situation. It is very stressful and causes great hardship for patients and families when the situations described at University Hospital Galway and, to a lesser extent, in Portiuncula Hospital, which have happened over the past number of weeks, occur. The Minister was right to say that staff, unions and management all have a role to play. I hope the action plan for accident and emergency departments, which is due by the end of January, will address many of the issues that have been very much to the fore in recent times, including issues like staffing levels, bed availability and the facilities themselves. I think Senator Healy Eames referred to the unsuitable nature of the accident and emergency department in University Hospital Galway. It is just not capable of catering for the numbers coming through that facility.
Senators Colm Burke and Crown spoke with some passion about the recruitment and retention of medical staff. They have spoken regularly in this House about the fact that we spend a fortune educating our doctors but then see them leave, bringing expertise to other jurisdictions. On the other hand, we depend on doctors from developing countries to sustain our health services. In some cases, these medics come here with lesser qualifications than our own doctors. There are language issues and then there is the ethical aspect about whether we should take medics away from these developing countries when their services are required at home. I am sure it is very much at the top of the Minister's agenda to address this whole issue of medical doctors and how we can retain them and attract back some of our highly qualified doctors and consultants who are working abroad but who we need back in our health service.
The whole issue of filling frontline posts, consultant posts and nursing posts, must be given priority. In my local hospital in Ballinasloe, the services are really stretched because some consultant posts have been unfilled for quite some time. I ask the Minister to give particular consideration and priority to ensuring that many of these posts that have been vacant for some time are filled in the coming year.
Like others, I welcome the fact the extension of BreastCheck for women aged 65 to 69 will commence in 2015.

I hope we will see significant progress before the end of 2015 and it continues apace after that. The additional €35 million ring-fenced for mental health services in 2015 is to be very much welcomed. I hope we will see further development and modernisation of our mental health services in line with A Vision for Change. The progress made should be built on significantly as, unfortunately, we still have far too many people losing their lives through suicide. We must ensure there are sufficient resources to improve services for people with mental health issues and disabilities.

The Minister has a daunting task ahead but he is sending out very positive signals in everything he has said since coming to office. I hope the additional resources he has managed to obtain this year can be further enhanced next year. There is no doubt the health budget will come under severe pressure later this year and I hope the Minister will make the sort of progress he has indicated that he wishes to see during the course of 2015.