Motion on Health Services - 28th May 2008

Motion on Health Services - 28th May 2008
Senator David Norris: It is a measure of the great interest and the seriousness with which
Seanad E´ ireann takes this matter that there are so many people wishing to speak and so
many have requested to share time. I am one of them and I wish to share time with Senator
Pearse Doherty.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach: The Senator has just less than eight minutes.
Senator David Norris: Senator Doherty said that two minutes would be enough.
Senator Jerry Buttimer: That would be generous.
Senator David Norris: I am not going to argue, because I wish to get on with this and if I am
finished early the Senator can make use of the time.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach: Is that agreed? Agreed.
Senator David Norris: Given the degree of interest in this matter it is a pity there is not a
supplied script from the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy
Barry Andrews, which I would have welcomed. It would have been helpful to those of us who,
because of pressure from other sources, were not able to be here to hear the Minister of State’s
speech. I am sure there was no disrespect intended, but I hope it will not happen again as we
are entitled to a ministerial script in such a serious debate.
I fully support universal health care provided by the State. I know that the concomitant of
that is increases in taxation and I would be happy to campaign for that, because it is the most
basic human right.
Senator Mary M. White: Hear, hear.
Senator David Norris: I do not like the public versus private model. It was appalling that the
woman in County Kilkenny was sentenced to death for the crime of being poor, which I have
said before. That is my principled stand. I find there are elements with which I agree on both
sides of the debate. For example, regarding step No. 4 in the motion, I agree with most of what
the Labour Party put down, but I do not agree that each hospital and each community care
area should be given autonomy to spend its budget. That is madness and will lead to NIMBY
syndrome. Everyone will want their own hospital and I do not believe it will work in that way.
We must have centralised control.
There are concerns, however. I listened to a very distinguished professor on the radio and
he said that he could have been an adviser and made money out of continually advising on reorganisation of the service. However, he went on to say, continual re-organisation would
involve throwing money at it all the time, but there would be no increase in service delivery
and we must face the existing problems. That is the reason, I believe, step No. 2 in the Labour
Party motion, namely, making it clear that the Minister for Health and Children is responsible
to the Oireachtas and appointing a named officer which may be the Secretary General or may
be Professor Brendan Drumm, is a way forward that is useful. I do not believe the proposal is
answered by the bland waffle with which the Government responds. The Government has said
these officials are already responsible which is not an answer to a direct and specific question.
That is what is wrong and it is the reason I will vote with the Opposition.
There are so many problems. I had a woman who campaigned for specific medical treatment
to be made available. That was agreed. Managers were appointed and, at that stage, the Civil
Service recruitment freeze was imposed. There was no medical staff, no delivery of services
and the HSE is left with the managers and is still paying them. That is the reason step No. 3
of the Labour Party motion proposing an offer of voluntary early retirement, redundancy and
re-deployment scheme is vital to progress. However, it must be focused, cut out the flab and
get rid of surplus people. There is no point getting rid of the people who deliver the service.
We must go further in our efforts, focus on change and make clear where it should be.
Regarding step No. 6 which says that each hospital and community care area should be
required to establish a patient liaison programme and so on, it quotes a specific case which is
one of the problems. We all find these heart-wrenching individual cases. However, I do not
believe we should endlessly regurgitate them.
Senator Mary M. White: Hear, hear.
Senator David Norris: The Minister for Health and Children cannot be made responsible for
each individual case. The greatest political friend I ever had in my life was Mr. Noel Browne
and I salute him, because he single-handedly broke through the curse of tuberculosis. He broke
the piggy-bank of the sweepstakes and established hospitals everywhere. If Mr. Noel Browne
was in this House or the other House demanding that we respond to every individual case it
would have impeded delivery of the programme. This is the reason we must avoid the Joe
Duffy radio programme route. We betray ourselves as politicians when we do go take it.
We can all agree, however, that we have all been touched by the hospice movement. It is
unparalleled in the humane treatment of people who are terminally ill. Yet, we have a situation
which is ludicrous, where there is a budget allocation made for a hospice, for its development
and to continue its work and then at the end of the year, it finds it has not been given the
money to spend. The money has been re-allocated to make up a deficit in another area. This
is wrong and we must be focused and prioritise. We must stop messing around and playing
politics with this issue. We must take seriously our responsibility to the citizens of Ireland and
deliver a decent health service. Given a choice between the two sides, on balance, having
previously supported the Minister for Health and Children, who is courageous even when she
is wrong — I do not know whether she has testosterone and I am not a sexual expert on this
matter, she may or may not have — I will vote with the Opposition tonight.