Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit as teacht isteach. Is deas é a fheiceáil. I welcome the Bill. It is really important. I will focus on three major points in the Bill that it is important to clarify and speak to. For me, it is massive that public consultants are now going to be paid to only be public consultants. As a person who has only had access to public healthcare, I have felt the wrath of consultants trying to bi-locate, for want of a better word, having been left waiting on trolleys in corridors as consultants tried to keep private patients happy while working in a public hospital. I have experienced consultants being very undermining and dismissive of the health issues with which I was dealing and also of the health issues of my son. This is a massive day for anybody who only deals with the public health system. The passage of the Bill means we might actually get to meet consultants rather than just meeting their registrars. I often went to see a consultant whose name was on the door but never met him or her. It is a massive day for anybody in the public health system as consultants will be paid just to be our doctors, rather than the doctors of others who can afford to pay for private healthcare. To get pushed up and seen mid-consultation is a horrendous practice. It is great that this is finally happening. It is very important because those who cannot afford private healthcare are often made to feel lesser anyway, not to mention the consultants not bothering with them or walking out of the room mid-consultation because they have been called by a richer person. This is a significant day for the couple of million people who cannot afford private healthcare. As private healthcare becomes more expensive, more people will rely on public healthcare. As politicians, one of our key jobs is to provide good healthcare, so I really welcome that aspect of the Bill.

It is really good that the Bill will reinstate the pensions that were taken away after the recession from pensioners who deserved them. Those pensioners will now be back on an equal footing with others. We want to have equality and this Bill will bring it about.

A few school friends of mine were in the Naval Service. It is really good that the Bill will bring about improved payment for those in what is referred to as the seagoing service. That is a good day for them.

The Bill does not affect everybody. It is almost naive for people to demand everything of a Bill. I have learned in my 11 months in the Seanad that there is no one Bill that will fix everything relating to public service pay but the Bill before the House rectifies three clear problems, so I welcome it.

To return to my passionate first point with regard to consultants, I am curious whether there is further information available with regard to what this will mean for public health users. Will there be more consultants? Is the plan that there will be shorter waiting lists as a result? Will it be possible to hire more public consultants as a result of this pay increase making it more enticing for them to just deal with those who do not have private healthcare? Will such patients finally get to meet consultants rather than just their registrars?