Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Tá sé go hiontach an tAire a fheiceáil anseo sa Teach inniu. Is fear an-ghnóthach é agus gabhaim buíochas leis as a bheith anseo. I welcome the fact the Minister has been to the House on four or five occasions. I also welcome the fact that the Ministers of State at the Department come to the House. In the past there was a very poor record, particularly of Ministers coming to the House. The Minister is doing better than many did in the past and it should be acknowledged. I also want to say about the Minister's statement today, and I have said this previously, that I always acknowledge his honesty on situations and the challenges we face. There is no point in any Minister of whatever Department not acknowledging that we have difficulties.

I support Senator Kyne's concerns about Galway. I know that because of the Minister's intervention things are moving. I hope they can move swiftly, particularly with regard to cancer care. I want to go back briefly to the closure of the accident and emergency department in Roscommon. We do not want to go back over old ground but a former Taoiseach, a former Minister for Health and a former Minister of State from the constituency, Mr. Finneran, secured that accident and emergency department with very good backup. Unfortunately, another Government came in, the HSE announced it would close it and it was closed. I want to put this on the record because sometimes it is not recognised that we had given a guarantee with regard to the accident and emergency department and it was in place. It was unceremoniously closed just like that. We all remember the episode and Deputy Naughten resigning from the party.

Coming in here to criticise everything is not the way to go either. We all know about the waiting lists and the challenges but what is being invested gives me hope. I do not fully agree with Senator Keogan but she makes some good points. I would say money is being well invested now. We have an extra 17,000 staff. I understand that almost 5,000 of these are nurses and midwives. We have 1,000 new beds. The Minister might clarify today, if he can, the cost of putting in place a hospital bed. Many people think it is a couple of hundred euro. The public might be shocked if they knew the real figure for putting in place a hospital bed. By the way, we need more beds. The Minister has acknowledged that he is trying desperately to get more beds into the system. We also have 600 new community beds. This is all progress. There are also increased diagnostics and improvements in women's health. It would be wrong to say that we have a health system in collapse but I fully acknowledge the anger of people throughout the country. I fully acknowledge the battle people have and they have gone on the streets to protest in a decent and fair way about it.

I fully support Senator Cassells and the people of Navan. They should not give in to the closing of that hospital. Otherwise they will end up like Roscommon. It does not make sense. We have to realise that for some people who do not have a medical card, hospital charges are a big issue. I welcome the progress the Minister has made on this and the statement he made on it this week. It is moving in the right direction. I acknowledge that all of these things cost more money. One of the problems with the health system, and the Minister is not to blame for it because he was not there at the time, is that we do not seem to have allowed for the increase in population in our country in terms of proper accident and emergency departments and more accident and emergency departments and beds in the system.

We also have a ferocious problem in the country with getting staff to fill vacancies. In the area of mental health area, we had the report on CAMHS this week that was quite disturbing. We have never had more money put into this system but in many areas we cannot get the required staff. I spoke about CAMHS earlier as well and the great difficulty in getting staff into this system. I restate what I said earlier. I think we should undertake an all-out appeal or campaign to look at Irish people working in the NHS in the UK. I suggest this because I have had this aspect brought to my attention on numerous occasions. I refer to Irish people working in the NHS who have sought to be employed in HSE and who have claimed to me that they do not always get a fair crack of the whip. We should have an all-out campaign to encourage people to come back. By the way, these people will not have an issue with housing or living in a certain area. This is a fact and I can give it to the House. I suggest that this is something we could look at, and perhaps we could have a real campaign in this area in order to try to get some of those staff that we desperately need. I thank the Minister for coming to the House and I thank the Cathaoirleach for listening to me for the past several minutes.