Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Out of the many of the responses I have heard in this Chamber, the last minute was one of the most frank and honest responses I have had on a Commencement matter. I thank the Minister of State for that. If we could keep her in the Department of Health for a couple of years she could sort out all of the problems there. On a serious note and as the Minister of State herself said, people in this situation have enough to be worrying about and they have experienced tragedy. To then feel as though the State is not supporting them is difficult. They come to us genuinely thinking that we can support and help them. It seems such an obvious thing where the State would look to support a person financially to get a prosthesis. However, we cannot and it is incredibly frustrating. When people are using the limited amount of money on other things and not on their own medical well-being, we really have a problem. In her response, the Minister of State mentioned that the HSE may use discretion. I have never seen the HSE move from what the rules are to having any sort of discretion or common sense. It is infuriating from our perspective. One gets to talk to someone in the HSE and they agree that the point is valid but still, nothing changes.