Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for having to nip out earlier and I thank the Cathaoirleach for giving me the opportunity to speak now. There are many important events about which I could talk today. There are many events that have happened since the House last met. There has been the Apple case, the huge efforts by the Government to hand back the €13 billion and the continuous denials that we have facilitated tax evasion and avoidance on a huge scale. We have the NAMA enquiry and the shenanigans that appear to have gone on there. I call for a debate in the House on that.

The real subject I want to talk to the Leader about today, however, is health. Since we last met, a patient died while waiting on a trolley in Galway. We cannot stand by and let that happen. This was a tragedy for the individual's family and friends and it has happened before, most recently at Tallaght hospital. As I speak, there are 33 people waiting on trolleys at Galway University Hospital. The national figure is 396. These are the lucky ones. They are the people who actually get a trolley. There has been a continuing saga of vital treatment being postponed because people cannot even get a trolley or a bed. There are patients who have had to go home from accident and emergency departments because there are no beds and they cannot be seen.

There is a great deal of amnesia in the House. I agree with Senator Feighan. I remind people of the trolley numbers from 2001 when Deputy Martin was Minister for Health and Children. In 2001, there were more than 500 people on trolleys. When Mary Harney was Minister for Health and Children, I invited her to come to Mayo General Hospital to look into the eyes of the people who were spending their last days on earth on trolleys and tell them why they could not have a bed or a room. Nothing was done. It was declared at the time to be a national emergency. It continued in 2006 and, again, in 2008, when over 400 people were left on trolleys. Nothing was done. We must be mindful that at that time the country was awash with money but the problem was completely ignored. People who come in here and talk about health as if it was a crisis that dropped out of the sky in recent months are deluding themselves. I want the Minister for Health to come to the House to tell us what the plan is in relation to this. I remind Mary Harney that she closed, aided and abetted by Fianna Fáil, the hospital in Belmullet.