Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the funding of the Sláintecare programme. It was raised briefly by some Senators in the statements on the budget yesterday. I would like the Leader to give clarification on the health measures announced in the budget. I saw this morning that the Minister, Deputy Harris, tweeted about the Sláintecare report in reference to the budget. This is disingenuous as the budget simply does not allow for the implementation of the report. It seems as though the hours and hours of hard work and dedication given to the report were just to keep the public representatives happy and distracted, when key recommendations were ignored. From my party's analysis, when the funding required to cover pay restoration of the Lansdowne Road agreement and the increase in demographics is taken into account, the Government is actually underspending and not making any real investment at all in tackling the crisis in health care. It would be funny if it was not so serious.

This morning some Government Deputies are saying that, in comparison to my party's alternative budget, the Government out-spent Sinn Féin on health. This is false and delusional. It is incredibly worrying that Government Deputies cannot read a budget expenditure sheet and have confused my party's additional increases, suggesting they are as poor as their total increase. Sinn Féin's alternative budget allocated an additional €403.5 million to health over and above demographics and the pay restoration of the Lansdowne Road agreement, which was costed at €1.2 billion. All of this was to be fully costed within the context of my party's wider alternative budget, inclusive of tax measures to fund these increases. We have out-spent the Government on this because we know that health is in an emergency situation and it is a priority. There are severe pressures arising year after year, from the young and the old, on the demands on the crumbling services. I ask the Leader to clarify why the Sláintecare report was largely ignored in the budget. If he is unable to do so, I ask him to ask the Minister to come in and provide this House with an explanation.