Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is time that we accepted that the health service is on dodgy life support in intensive care. Yesterday, 520 of our citizens were lying on trolleys throughout the State. This figure is growing towards the dangerously high levels seen over the Christmas period. The INMO's trolley figures date back almost a decade. They were unwanted at the time and it took a fight to get them accepted, but they eventually were. Traditionally, the last week of January and the first week of February see the peak, so I do not know whether we are out of the woods. I hope that we are.

It is not just the trolley crisis that has our health service on life support. Surgeries are being cancelled and wards are closed because of chronic understaffing. Current staff are stretched to the point of despair. The persistent problem with patients on trolleys is a direct consequence of decades of failed Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil policy. Coincidentally, they are now in government together. Deputy Micheál Martin's pledges are in the past, Brian Cowen called it "Angola", Senator Reilly said that never again would we see 559 patients on trolleys and the next prospective leader of the Senator's party was removed from his position.

In some cases, the treatment of patients in our hospitals is an attack on human rights. I do not say it lightly. That 612 patients are on trolleys cannot be attributed to the flu alone. The Minister was given plenty of warning in advance of this situation. The sick are facing these delays. The national service plan identified these risks. As to the extra €40 million for the winter initiative that was announced at the end of September or in October, front-line staff were sceptical that it would reach its target, to put it politely. Unfortunately, responsibility lies with this Government.

I was glad to hear in the Minister's response to the crisis during a radio interview his forced acknowledgement of a capacity issue, which had been denied for long. I was also glad to hear the CEO of the HSE outlining last week that at least €9 billion extra would be needed over the next decade to fix our health service.

The Minister rightly referred to how the last new hospital had been built in 1998. Primary care centres are being built, which is welcome, but if hundreds of patients are lying on trolleys annually, it is not rocket science to figure out that more beds are needed quickly. This will require significant capital investment from the proper collection of taxes. Proposing to abolish the USC while still treating our families, friends and neighbours in hospitals is fairytale economics. Allowing corporations, vulture funds and the like to use every loophole possible to avoid paying tax is a national scandal, given what is happening in our hospitals. People have died on trolleys. Irish people are fair and understand the need for taxes and the retention of the USC. They want the provision of services, not piecemeal tokens in their payslips that strip our front-line services even further.

The arrogant attitude of some among the HSE's management is unbelievable. Recently, they alluded to people keeping elderly family members in hospital beds in order to prevent them from entering the fair deal scheme, thereby protecting their inheritances. It was a sad departure for the HSE. I believe that the claim came from the same department that issued the memo, also rescinded, saying that nurses could use minimal force to remove patients from beds. I do not know what that department is doing, but its statements have been incredible.

To have this attitude towards frail and vulnerable people who have contributed for all of their lives to this country is an uncompassionate - that is not even the right word - trend that has developed in our hierarchical, non-practising management hospital structures. I have always advocated that compassion be returned to our health system.

I noted the HSE's recruitment initiative for nurses who were returning over the Christmas period. I will refer to the vox popconducted by the media with some of them. I mentored, trained and, at the airport, waved goodbye to a number of them. The majority maintained that they received better pay, conditions, training, respect and lifestyles abroad. They felt let down by the State, having been forced, as Mr. Tony O'Brien said, to leave. I do not blame them. I received a message from a young nurse at the weekend. She had returned from Australia. It was great to see. She told me that our system was doing her head in. She was trying to figure out payscales and hours. As an ex-union person, she asked whether I could figure it all out for her. To her, it was no wonder that no one was returning. We must examine how to make the transition into our system as smooth as possible. Will the Minister update the House on the many nurses he mentioned had been recruited under this initiative over Christmas?

I am concerned that talks between unions and management on the crisis in recruiting and retaining nurses adjourned last night. Are we looking at more industrial action? No one wants it, but it is often necessary to get things done. There is no time to waste. The union council meets next Monday and is likely to sanction strike action.

In early December, hundreds of seriously ill cystic fibrosis sufferers demonstrated outside the Leinster House gates regarding the availability of Orkambi. There has been a similar battle over Kalydeco for younger children suffering from the same illness. I understand that Vertex has made a revised reimbursement offer. Will the Minister update the House in that respect? He has updated us generally on the corporate greed of many drug companies. Will he also update us on the position on medicinal cannabis? I am thinking of a particular case of which he would also be aware. I chatted to the parents of a seven year old a couple of weeks ago.

I cannot conclude without referring to mental health. I stress the immediate need for the introduction of a 24-7 crisis intervention service to try to reduce the number of citizens who die by suicide. We all advocate for the implementation of A Vision for Change, but that will not happen anytime soon. I have held regional health conferences over the past month. The main issue raised time and again was that of access to 24-7 services. Our party laid a Private Members' Bill before the Oireachtas, but it was amended, diluted or voted down by the Government or Fianna Fáil. If we can do only one thing in this era of new politics, I plead for us to work together on a cross-party initiative to deliver in this regard. Starting at 7 a.m. today, I have had three conversations with two sets of parents and one young woman with a child about how to access services.One of the parents had a 13 year old who had sent a text showing a rope. This 13 year old was ready to commit suicide and had nowhere to go. Public representatives and councillors across the country deal with this on a daily basis, in the expectation of a bed or professional help being provided but we are lost. I look forward to receiving the work of the committee on the future of health care which will hopefully deliver a long-term vision. In the meantime, the Minister can look forward to my support and my criticism, and that of the Sinn Féin team.