Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, to the House and I commend Senator Conway for the motion before us and for the work he is doing. The naked partisan speech we have just heard needs to be addressed also in the context of the amount of investment being made by the Government in the area of disability services, which is €1.9 billion for this year, notwithstanding some of the commentary and some of the comments. Senator Conway said that 80% of people who become blind, or four out of every five, do so unnecessarily. We need to address the whole issue of general eyesight. It is important that we see the motion proposed by Senator Conway as being about engaging and empowering. Let us have the debate in the context of Sláintecare, which is the policy around the transformation of our health service. We did not arrive just today at the figures for those waiting. I ask Members to cast their minds back to the previous period of ten years of inertia around our health system during which there was no direct investment in eye care. There was piecemeal investment, no strategic vision, no plan, and it was left to organisations such as Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind or the National Council for the Blind Ireland, NCBI. I particularly commend Kevin for being here today. Many of us grew up with the radio programme on a Sunday evening with Jim Sherwin, which shone a light on the huge deficits around visual impairment and the obstacles that had to be overcome, and in particular around the fact that we have in our health system a number of Cinderella areas, one of which is the area we are discussing today. We did not arrive at this point today; it has been arrived at after decades of mismanagement and bad investment.

I commend the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind organisation in Cork for the work it does. I concur with Senator Boyhan that no organisation should be on a rolling pilot scheme. If that is the case it should not be that way. We need to see dedicated proper management and liaison between the HSE and the service level agreement provided for organisations. Part of the fundamental problem is that we have vested interests in our health service that lead to a malaise and chaos in our health system. As part of Sláintecare I would like to have an honest debate about our health system, which we did not have in this House because Members of this House were excluded from that Oireachtas committee. We need a debate about taking on the vested interests in our health system. Something is fundamentally wrong when the health budget is increased year on year and there are also supplementary budgets for health year on year, yet we have issues with the health system. It is fundamentally wrong. I will stand on that as a former chairman of the health committee. Having been involved with the COPE Foundation for almost 48 years of my life - and having had members of my family working there - I am fully aware of the whole issue of disability. It is not enough to have a Minister of State with responsibility for disability issues; it is about having a co-ordinated strategy where the HSE budget provision is not given at the back-end of the year but is given at the beginning of the year. Where money is being taken from A to plug a gap in B it is not good enough. It is time for honest debate in Ireland about health. This year €1.9 billion has been given for health. Having said that, Senator Conway's motion is particular to the issue of an eye clinic liaison officer service. I commend Professor David Keegan for his work. The points he makes in the booklet on early intervention are very pertinent as are the points about expanding the service.

What we are trying to do here, as referred to by Senators Conway and Boyhan, is about empowerment and engagement to allow people to live independent lives. We think of people like Jim Dennehy in Cork who are exponents of how one can do that, and who became role models for people with disabilities in the city of Cork and the country of Ireland. All of us who live in the community understand the importance of what we debate today because it is about intervention and ensuring that we allow for the conversation and the empowerment. Early intervention is critical. If we are serious about tackling the health needs of our nation in a generic way then - whether it comes under Healthy Ireland or debating it here today, or whatever - it is about early intervention. Senator Conway is asking for eye clinic liaison officers to be provided and rolled out. This is a measure we should all support.

There are deficits by Government, absolutely, but going back to the importance of what I am saying, we need to see an overarching plan that is achievable, accountable and which delivers. There is work being done by the NCBI, the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind and the ophthalmologists in many parts of the city. We fully accept that the waiting lists are too high but we need to ensure there is early intervention. If Sláintecare or the health system is to work then we have to refocus our priorities, recalibrate our approach, admit that what we are doing is wrong if it is wrong, and restart the process again to change it.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion before us today. I commend all involved and especially Senator Conway who, as Senator Boyhan has said, is a very strong advocate and a powerful role model in the House. However, there also needs to be a real conversation with the HSE about its approach from the ground up. We can blame the Government and Ministers for everything but the fundamentals remain, namely, that it is also about the application of the policy and the application of resourcing that is done at a local level. I would like to see that conversation happening.

I do not for one minute subscribe to the notion that everything is perfect. It is far from it and is anything but. There is, however, an opportunity now. It is part of what the motion is about and is central to the tenet of Sláintecare, which is the importance of the person. If we are serious about allowing people to live independent lives in their communities and providing the supports, which Senator Boyhan rightly pointed to, such as to the person who might need to have a letter read or who needs to have integration further expanded into the community and to be able to live an independent life, then we have an obligation to do that.I commend Senator Conway for his work. Today's debate is another step on the journey. We also need further conversation and a recalibration of our approach to this issue.