Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The actor John Connors made a very principled decision in refusing to appear on it earlier this week because of its awful sectarian nature.

I commend my colleague, Senator Ó Clochartaigh. Several Senators from various parties attended the stroke manifesto meeting and listened to Martin Quinn, who was in the Gallery this morning. I know Martin of old and did some work with him in Tipperary. His story was very moving and he revealed much of which I was unaware. I acknowledge that Senator Reilly did some work in regard to strokes but the inadequacy of our stroke treatment services is shocking. The stroke manifesto issued by the Irish Heart Foundation which I recommend all Members look at because almost all probably have family members who have been affected by stroke - my father was on two occasions - states that "[o]ver 3,000 stroke patients every year are being denied a potentially better outcome because of the HSE’s failure to roll out Early Supported Discharge programmes nationally that could also free up 24,000 bed days a year in our struggling hospital system". Imagine the difference that would be made by having access to those beds. It further states that "[t]he State spends up to 60 times more on nursing home care for stroke survivors than the community rehabilitation services that can keep them living in their homes." It seems to be a fundamental problem in terms of the prioritisation of funding. The meeting was one of the most impressive I have attended since becoming a Senator. It is very important that all Members on a cross-party basis acknowledge that there must be significant extra funding in this area. Without wishing to be contentious, I do not know how one reconciles the extra funding needed with requests by the likes of Brian Hayes, MEP, for a focus on tax cuts in the coming election. One cannot have both. In fairness, I think Senator Conway of Fine Gael a few months ago said that we should forget about tax cuts and focus on investment in our health services and I agree with him in that regard. We must be honest with the public. We can have investment in decent public services or we can have tax cuts but we cannot have both. I call for a debate on the issue.