Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader. Listening to yesterday's debate on the scandal of waiting lists, I very much welcome Fine Gael's conversion to Sinn Féin's position, one that has been roundly criticised as fantasy economics by the Leader himself on many occasions. For many years Sinn Féin has produced alternative budgets that honestly set out the measures needed to address the shortcomings in the health service. On many occasions, the Leader has used these as a stick to beat Sinn Féin.

I would also like to see a debate, as was called for by Senator Conway yesterday, on exactly how we fund health care in the future, rather than statements on the difficult choices regarding tax and expenditure that will have to be made. In the last budget, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil chose the €290 million in tax cuts over increased capital spend. Sinn Féin clearly demonstrated how €267 million extra could be spent on 500 additional hospital beds, reducing the prescription charges by €1 each and increasing ambulance cover, as well as improving mental health services.

What is difficult for an economic illiterate like myself to understand is why the Government would choose to facilitate a tax avoidance measure for foreign vulture funds amounting to up to €350 million while at the same time denying citizens vital treatment unless they have the money to pay privately. I cannot reconcile that. Right at this moment, I know a man who is in absolutely excruciating pain waiting for vital treatment in my own constituency in Mayo. We have continued over successive Governments to give away all of these tax breaks and provide loopholes for people who do not need this money. To think that we are giving away all of this money is impossible for me to understand.I would welcome if the Leader of the House, and indeed the Fianna Fáil leader, could explain to me why these choices are made. I cannot explain to the people I am here to serve why this is done.

This morning my colleague, Michelle O'Neill, has confirmed a financial package to deal with waiting lists in the North after the Assembly elections. However, the real solution lies in an all-Ireland health service, which would mean people not having to travel from Donegal to Galway for chemotherapy owing to a lack of staff in Letterkenny. Any debate here on the future of health care must include a discussion on an all-Ireland approach to health which is an all-island issue.

I hear the Leader constantly talking in the background about tax. I am not proposing a high-tax option; it is a fair-tax option providing for a proper education service and particularly a proper health service for all the people on the island.