I was being helpful.

I was clarifying.

I am talking on amendment No. 5, but I also support the other grouped amendments, with the exception of the Minister’s amendment, and my apologies to the Minister. We are talking about a review of the Act. It is important for us in the first instance to understand what it is the legislation does because we have had some discussion already. It is incumbent upon those of us who support the Bill to be very clear about what this legislation does. The legislation essentially is about allowing women to safely access heal…

I do not want to split hairs on this issue. I do not contend at all that the Minister is being unreasonable, but neither are those of us who are making our arguments. I made a point earlier that I will repeat and not labour. The Minister's amendment states that he shall, "not later than 18 months after the commencement of this section, commence a review" as opposed to completing a review. My amendment No. 5 seeks to have a report completed within 24 months. I do not think that is splitting hairs. There is a differe…

I move amendment No. 5: In page 7, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following: “Review of operation of Act 7. The Minister shall, within 24 months of the passing of this Act, carry out a review of the operation of the Act, to include in particular a review of the effectiveness and operationalisation of section 4(2) which shall make recommendations on whether a system for recording a warning under section 4(2) should be prescribed by regulation.”.

Last Friday, the CEO of the HSE directed a severe escalation in the recruitment embargo caused by this Government’s mismanagement of the health budget. Job offers were withdrawn and recruitment has been halted for thousands of vital front-line posts. More than 7,000 essential posts have now been scrapped. The disastrous consequences of this Government's decision to deliberately underfund the health services for next year become clearer by the day and by the week. In his memo last week, the HSE CEO, Bernard Gloster,…

I did not gloss over it at all.

The Minister can raise issues about Sinn Féin all he likes.

He did not include that we would have provided for existing levels of service above that €1.5 billion. First of all, the Minister is wrong, as usual. People do not need bluster. I want the Minister to talk to patients and healthcare professionals, the older person or grandmother lying on a hospital trolley, the person with scoliosis waiting for a procedure or the child waiting for a speech or language or occupational therapy. All will get worse because there is a recruitment freeze. The Minister called it a "pause.…

That is additional.

It does not include the ELS.

The HSE said it is not adequate. Do not take my word for it.

Last year, the HSE published the national stroke strategy from 2022 to 2027, which I fully supported. It received €4.9 million in funding for 2023. I understand that approximately €1 million worth of posts are unfilled and there are concerns over their funding. For 2024, the national stroke programme requires millions of euro for 75 essential additional posts to safely staff our stroke units. In the budget just gone, how much additional core expenditure was provided to fund the national stroke strategy?

This shows again that it was quite dangerous not to properly fund the health service for next year but also not provide any additional funding for new measures. As I suspected, any additional funding that will come to the national stroke strategy is simply to stand still and is funding for existing levels of service. Some 6,000 people have a stroke every year and 2,000 of them do not get to a stroke unit in the first instance. A further 2,000 are discharged early. We know we have lots of problems. The aim of the st…

The reason we tabled the questions the way we did is to cut through all of the spin and essentially lay bare the consequences of a Government that does not properly fund our health services. As Minister for Health, the Minister knows a huge mistake was made in not properly funding the health services even to stand still but what is worse is that if we do not provide new funding each year, particularly for these strategies, we lose a year. We stand still. With the greatest of respect, funding coming from other Depar…

The number of children on CAMHS waiting lists has doubled from 2,000 to 4,000 under this Government. More than 16,000 children are on waiting lists for psychology and more than 6,000 young people have presented to emergency departments due to a mental health illness since 2019 because they do not have alternative care pathways. CAMHS does not seem to be the solution for them. The service is dramatically underfunded and it has major problems in many areas. Despite lots of good work being done by people who work in C…

I appreciate that but it is certainly nowhere near enough for what is required. I have on many occasions, both in this Chamber and outside it, welcomed an awful lot of very good work done by both the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and I will always acknowledge where good work is done, good initiatives put in place and additional funding made available. Nevertheless, it is my job to call out, as is right to do, what I feel was a dreadful decision made by the Government and the Cabinet not to fund…

Again, I am duty-bound to point out that a scathing Mental Health Commission report on CAMHS made a lot of recommendations, some of which, I understand, will be implemented, whereas in the case of others, the Government is pushing back against them. The Government might have its reasons to push back against them, but we cannot push back against the dire need to invest in CAMHS services to give young people better opportunities. I accept some of what the Minister of State said about additional posts that have come o…

I thank the Labour Party for tabling the motion. The backdrop to any discussion we have on healthcare and healthcare delivery is obviously tainted by the fact that in the recent budget there was very little, if any, new funding for new measures across the healthcare system. The Government took a deliberate decision in the budget not to provide additional funding for new measures or even to provide enough money for the health service to stand still. We know that will have consequences. We can see it with a recruitme…

Even if a statutory home-care scheme is brought in, the first questions we need to ask are whether we have the capacity to deliver it and what will actually change for people. I do not believe we have the capacity to deliver a scheme in the way it was originally envisaged. Maybe that is the reason it has not happened. I have a real fear that we will, in very cosmetic ways, bring in a statutory home-care scheme and tick that box without changing anything in reality for older people. If we bring in a statutory scheme…