Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a number of issues. In recent days there has been a series of actions throughout the country which have compounded the difficulty caused by the Government and previous Governments in shutting down rural communities, in particular the closure of Garda stations. In west County Sligo we had the closure of Easky Garda station some years back and despite officials from the OPW visiting the location with me and members of the community, who had a project for community use, the infrastructure was sold for a mere €65,000 at auction on Monday. This has been repeated throughout the country. Another action is proposed in Keshcarrigan, County Leitrim. The measly gain of €65,000 on the part of the OPW is insignificant when we consider the loss in value in the uses it could have had for community initiatives. It also wipes out the potential for these communities to have, at a future date, the return of community Garda stations when resources permit. This is a retrograde step. I again wrote to the Minister of State, Deputy Harris, on the issue this morning. I beseech all members of Fine Gael and the Labour Party to put a stop to this because it is wrecking rural communities throughout the country.

We welcome the White Paper launched today by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Alex White, on the future energy needs of the country and how we will provide them. Not directly connected to energy, it provides the community in Ireland with the opportunity to state - in a final way - that this is a country which is not in favour of fracking and is not prepared to gamble our tourism and agriculture infrastructure, and our clean air and clean water for what still remains an unknown quantity in the context of its impact on communities.

The main issue I want to raise is the health budget, about we heard this morning. Articles in The Irish Timesunderpin what we have been saying for many years, namely, that when the service plan for the HSE is published, it remains a bogus account of what lies ahead. Still we see, and it surpasses even the terrible days of the former Minister, Deputy James Reilly, that the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, has adopted a punditry and commentary role on health instead of realising he is captain of the ship and the one who is supposed to be driving the bus. He spoke on "Morning Ireland" and used phrases like "We projected this" and "We probably will not have enough money for that". Next year, under the fiscal treaty rules, we will not be able to have a supplementary budget of €605 million such as that which has been brought forward this year. Next year we will have to make do without. However, the budget for next year is only marginally above it. When will we have somebody in charge of the Department of Health who will take responsibility for the general management of it, budget appropriately for what is needed by the health service in the year ahead and acknowledge the crisis we are experiencing?

With regard to one crisis in particular, we propose an amendment to the Order of Business to the effect that No. 15 be taken before No. 1 or at any stage today. It relates to the cystic fibrosis, CF, drug Orkambi, which, as Members probably know, has had huge results in other countries, with up to a 40% reduction in hospital admissions for cystic fibrosis patients. It is quite simply a wonder drug in terms of its effects and benefits. It would help at least 60% of the patients in Ireland. It is very effective for the most common CF gene alteration in Ireland, which is delta F508. Mr. Tony O'Brien, the CEO of the Health Service Executive, stated there is not enough money in the purse to provide this drug to people, without even considering the benefits we would have in reducing the number of patients. This is before the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics has even negotiated on the provision of the drug. I have been through this before, along with Senator Crown, in respect of access to cancer treatment. He and I were rubbished for our efforts to try to change the focus to the benefits to the patient rather than the cost per life saved, which is very different from patient to patient. We believe this is a retrograde step and we will put to a vote today that we take this motion and we will not agree to the Order of Business until it is taken because the cystic fibrosis patients of Ireland, their families and many people affected by this deserve better than somebody in the HSE in an ivory tower or a Minister simply saying we do not have the money to help.