A&E Crisis
Mr. Gormley: The Tánaiste stated in her address: “Every piece of the jigsaw to address accident and emergency department problems is in place: the analysis, the resources, the reform programme, the management, the targets, and the incentives.” As the father of two children under the age of eight, I have experience of jigsaws. When I look at the health service, I do not see a jigsaw puzzle that has its pieces in place but one which has its pieces all over the living room floor and which must be cleaned up and put in place, perhaps by the next Government. The Tánaiste described the situation as a crisis and a national emergency. However, what we got from her today was an exercise in spin. It was self-serving, self-congratulatory rhetoric. The previous Government spun its way out of this problem prior to the previous general election and got away with it.
I hope the Tánaiste is not about to leave the Chamber just as I am getting into my stride.
The Tánaiste: No, I am not. I look forward to the Deputy’s contribution. I think he will be doing his own spinning, given what I have heard.
Mr. Gormley: The Tánaiste should hear me out. My contribution will not be over-complimentary.
The Tánaiste: I am surprised to hear that.
Mr. Gormley: The Government got away with it at the previous general election but I do not believe it can pull off the same trick twice. The Tánaiste’s predecessors in office as Minister were Deputy Cowen, who kept his head down and described the Department as Angola, so full of landmines was it, and Deputy Martin, who was really the Minister for reports and who published document after document about the health service. He even established a commission on water fluoridation, which was a ridiculous exercise that cost a lot of money. All he needed to do was ask me and I could have told him about water fluoridation without costing him or the taxpayer a penny.
The Tánaiste took office like a sheriff coming into town on a horse. She was going to clean up the Department of Health and Children and take no nonsense. The Tánaiste, like the Taoiseach, stated in this Chamber that she would deliver a world class health service. I said at the time: “Dream on.” The Tánaiste took umbrage at my comment but we are still far away from a world class health service. Instead of delivering such a service, the Tánaiste has begun to indulge in the blame game. She is dumping on the doctors and nurses who are apparently to blame for the crisis in accident and emergency. These are the staff on the front line who have contributed more to our health service than the Tánaiste ever has or will.
The Tánaiste has overseen the introduction of the Health Service Executive. My amendment to the Government motion states that the HSE has resulted in less accountability and transparency. Professor Brendan Drumm has effectively become a ventriloquist’s dummy. The Tánaiste is spinning a line which Professor Drumm takes up to propagate the same message, which is that lack of bed capacity is not the problem.
Some figures will help to encapsulate the problem. We have experienced a 25% increase in population since the 1980s but in that period there has been a 25% reduction in bed capacity. It does not take a rocket scientist to work out that there is a problem in this regard but, apparently, the Tánaiste has not worked it out yet.
The Tánaiste: There has been a 100% increase in day cases.
Mr. Gormley: This problem applies across the board, not just in the health service. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform also must realise that we need more gardaí because our population has increased. Across the board, there is an infrastructural deficit and a problem with which the Government cannot cope which results from the growth in population caused by the growth in the economy. It is clear that the Government cannot manage growth in the economy.
Another problem the Tánaiste has failed to recognise is that 25% of those who present at accident and emergency units are intoxicated. The Tánaiste is not dealing with the unruly people who cause serious problems. The alcohol products Bill would have been a start but the Tánaiste shelved it and it mysteriously disappeared from the programme for Government.
The Tánaiste stated that this would be the litmus test. When I used litmus paper at school it was to judge the pH value of a substance. Someone would always mess about and put in a lump of potassium when we were trying to measure the pH values, which had severe consequences. The Tánaiste’s privatisation and Americanisation of the health service is similar. She is destroying the health service and making the accident and emergency crisis much worse through her actions. It is time to discover that we want to be closer to Berlin than to Boston.