David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday in the Leader's absence, many of us again called for a debate on health care. I support the proposed amendment to the Order of Business. For almost six months now, Senators from Government and Opposition have been calling for the Minister for Health to come before the Seanad, not to deal with legislation but to take statements on health care. An awful lot has happened in those six months. The Government has abandoned the plan for universal health insurance. We have chaos in accident and emergency wards across the State. Capacity has been stripped from our hospitals because of five budgets delivered by this Government.

Every single Government representative has to take responsibility for what is happening in our health service. It is wrong for any Government Senator, be it Senator Mullins or anyone else, to put the blame for whatever chaos they say might arise from industrial action on the shoulders of the nurses. They are operating on the front line under fierce pressure, and have been for years, because of the policies adopted by Fine Gael and the Labour Party and decisions the current Government took when it voted for budgets that took billions of euro out of the health service.

In the Leader's own county there are 300 fewer staff at University Hospital Waterford. One and a half surgical theatres are lying idle because we do not have the nurses, doctors or consultants to make sure people are treated. The Leader knows the figures because I have presented them to him before. The result is over 8,000 patients waiting longer than 12 months, with pressure points in orthopaedics, ophthalmology, and ear nose and throat, where people are waiting in some cases over two years. We still do not have 24-7 cardiology. We do not have the palliative care unit we were promised. We do not have the community nursing unit we were promised. That is why we have pressure in our accident and emergency ward in University Hospital Waterford. That is why we have the lead consultant talking about the chaos in that department. It is a symptom of all the other failures of this Government.

It is good that at some point the Minister for Health might come before the Seanad but that is not going to provide one extra bed, nurse or doctor, or one extra cent for the health service. If the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, is coming into the Seanad, I want him to present a plan on how we deal with this problem. It is at crisis point and it is not fair to blame the nurses. They are going on strike not because they want to but because they are forced into it by the unbearable conditions in which they are being asked to work. That is the responsibility of the Leader and the Minister. I ask the Leader to get the Minister into the House so we can have a debate, but let him come with an action plan and let him tell us how he and the Government - the Labour Party and Fine Gael - are going to do something about the crisis in our health services.