Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, to the House. He is always very welcome here. I know he has had a long day and a busy few days. We had a very good engagement on the future of Sláintecare at the Joint Committee on Health. I have no doubt about the commitment of the Minister, the Secretary General of his Department and the HSE to Sláintecare. We need to be realistic to some extent. We have just been through the worst pandemic in living memory. There have been many achievements with Sláintecare. Along with everyone else, I pay tribute to Laura Magahy for her leadership and what she achieved with Sláintecare. I also pay tribute to Professor Tom Keane, not just for what he achieved with Sláintecare but also for what he has achieved in healthcare in this country, particularly the cancer strategy.

At this stage we need to move the project on to delivery. I know the Minister is committed to that, as we all are. Universal healthcare is great and we all support it. However, I do not think universal healthcare is a priority for multimillionaires who can afford to pay for their healthcare. In the first instance, the money needs to go to the lower levels in society who needed most. The very last tier to benefit from universal healthcare should be the wealthiest people in our society. That is where I am coming from on universal healthcare. To be fair, most of the very well-off people in society would agree that they can afford to pay for their healthcare, and if they can afford to do so, they should.

Regarding what has been achieved with the Sláintecare model, for too long healthcare has been a political football. It is a political issue but it should not be a political football. We should all be working in unison to achieve the type of healthcare we can stand over. As the Minister has said, we have a long way to go, but we are moving in the right direction. I welcome that €22.5 billion has been allocated to healthcare this year up from €17 billion or €18 billion three or four years ago. When the Minister was Opposition spokesperson on health, he rightly carried out many forensic analyses of healthcare at the Joint Committee on Health. I know he would expect nothing less of anyone in this House but to adopt the same policy in forensically analysing all the decisions he makes to ensure they achieve what he and everyone else wants them to achieve.

I acknowledge the Minister's stewardship of the pandemic since he took up office in July 2020. It has not been easy; it has been difficult. It is much easier to close places down than to open up. I welcome this morning's announcements.

I wish to make a few points as we face into the winter plan, which I welcome. We have achieved enormous success in the vaccination programme, with 92% of the population fully vaccinated against Covid-19. I spoke today on the Order of Business on this issue. I am still concerned that we are still charging people for the flu vaccine, which seems to be penny wise and pound foolish. The flu vaccine should be available to every member of the population free of charge. In fact, we should be running the same campaigns as we have been running for Covid to encourage people to take the flu vaccine. The Minister knows the situation in Limerick and Galway at the moment - not a bed is available and people are on trolleys.

Let us do what we can at the start by encouraging people to take the vaccine by not charging for it. I would go a step further and say we should not be charging for any vaccine. I welcome the commitment the Minister gave to me through the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, in a Commencement debate on the HPV vaccine. It is shocking to think we have been charging between €400 and €600 to people who wanted to catch up and get their children vaccinated against HPV. I welcome the announcement the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, made here in recent weeks that the Government would eliminate those charges. In his summing up, I ask the Minister to give a timeline for when this will happen. I know Laura Brennan's family is anxious, as I am and everyone else is, to know when this policy initiative will be activated.

We have come a long way with health. I want to finish on a positive note which I think is appropriate. We have allocated €22.5 billion to healthcare this year. Most people in society are happy to forgo tax cuts to see money invested in health. We have an obligation to look after the health of our people. I wish the Minister well in his job. Why can we not make the flu vaccine available to everybody for free? When will he eliminate the €400 to €600 charge for the catch-up programme for HPV vaccination, as committed to in this House by the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte?