Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to speak on amendments No. 1 and 5, but I also wish to speak on the section. I listened to what the Minister of State and advocacy groups said. For me, this is about trust and confidence. I can see from the perspective of those involved in advocacy groups that trust has been shattered and confidence is low.The difficulty is I feel we are parsing words but what will it actually mean? In preparing for today's debate, I spoke to a person who gave me an example of how this amendment could affect people. The person had come across two separate cases of women who were in disability services, not in nursing homes, and who, because our capacity legislation is not in place, cannot sign to get the amount of money of which they are so deserving. Treatments and services they require are being denied to them. These women are in a nursing home and are paying out of their own money for mattress protectors and walkers, products that should be provided by the HSE. They are told they would have to wait so long for them that they would be better off buying them out of their own pocket. These are women who do not have that money, who have been institutionalised for 30 to 40 years and who do not necessarily have an extended family because they have been institutionalised by the State.

As I read the amendment, it seeks to give clarity and confidence to trusts to say to these women that they have a right to these services, not that they will be put at the end of the queue or will have to grovel, ask and beg. We want to be absolutely explicit, whether it is through this amendment or on the floor of the House, that the GP services, the treatments and the health services will be available to them without charge and without putting them to the end of a list. That is the least we can do. The Minister of State said on the last day that it was emotional; it is emotional but it is also a fact. I am not saying we should make sure we do this. We have to do this. We have to restore trust and confidence. We have to right the wrongs of the past. For me, the very least we can do is ensure that the services needed and should be provided are available as a right. For me, that is how we correct the past. We must ensure it is a clear right in the legislation.