Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is a pity Senator Colm Burke has left the Chamber because I was given an education on how we had got to where we were in the health crisis. The Minister for Health appeared on the national broadcaster to say he was ashamed and heartbroken at the revelations made. I think he is a decent man, but the policies he has put in place and the ones put in place by Fianna Fáil before him are indecent. There has been chronic under-investment for many years in every corner of the health service, from primary care services to home care packages, nursing units, community hospitals and acute hospitals. When there is such a situation, it creates the bottlenecks that result in so many citizens being on trolleys. In recent days we have learned that in nursing units and community hospitals in County Donegal and, no doubt, throughout the State elderly people are being told that no respite care services will be available to them because beds need to be freed up for patients from the major acute hospitals. We are robbing Peter to pay Paul again. Similarly, if one looks at the numbers on waiting lists, the reason they are increasing and there are so many cancellations is the use of the full capacity protocol whereby people are told their procedures or operations have been cancelled because beds must be freed up in hospitals in which so many beds have been closed. One could not make up this stuff. Let us be real. The solution to the crisis lies in adequate investment. I argue that there is a need for a five-year plan to ensure adequate investment in the provision of beds and nurses. The crisis will not be solved overnight, but a clear five-year plan needs to be outlined now. It is not enough for a Minister to say they are ashamed or heartbroken at the latest crisis or scandal.

My next point concerns broadband. I propose that the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment come to the House to update us on the timeframe for the roll-out of broadband. The rural development action plan was launched recently, but everybody who represents a rural area knows that we need a timeframe for the provision of broadband for every home. Will the Leader, therefore, ask the Minister to come to the House to debate the matter?