It is important that we have time to debate and discuss the provision of abortion services in the State following the publication of the independent review of the operation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 that was published last month. In 2018 people voted for women to have access to services. The provision of termination of pregnancy services was endorsed by the Irish people by referendum, with a clear picture of what those services would look like and with an understanding that the…

A problem you created.

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — the average waiting time for emergency department admission so far this year stands at 11.5 hours, which is an hour longer than for the same period in 2019; — the trolley scandal which Fine Gael pledged to end is now worse than ever and has become a year-round threat to patient safety, with an average of more than 550 patients on trolleys every day so far this month, compared to 350 in May 2011; — there were 24,000 hospital appointments and procedures cancelled in April 2023…

Hear, hear.

Behind all of the facts and numbers that were presented in both the Sinn Féin motion and the countermotion from the Government are real people and their experiences. We heard many of those stories shared by Deputies from right across the political divide. The stories of older people left waiting on hospital trolleys, sometimes for days on end, were shared. Many people do not even make it to a hospital trolley. They are left on chairs in emergency departments for 24 hours and in some cases, for days on end. Some chi…

I commend the Independent Group on tabling this Private Member's motion. The heart of this motion is that we should better utilise model 1 and model 2 hospitals, but particularly model 2 hospitals, to take pressure away from the model 3 and model 4 hospitals. As a previous Deputy said, we are ten years into the framework for smaller hospitals and we are still not using them to best effect. I fully agree with what is being called for regarding the operating hours of medical assessment units and local injury units. T…

I support the amendment tabled by Deputy Shortall and agree with her points on health and social care services and workers. On Second Stage and on a number of other occasions, I have raised with the Minister the sectors which are still not regulated and which still will not be captured with this Bill. Home care is one of those. The Minister will appreciate the difficulties we have in getting staff to provide home help. It is one of those areas in respect of which one of the Ministers of State at the Department of H…

I support the amendment, although much of what the Irish Dental Association is calling for can be done without this amendment or even without this Bill passing were the amendment to be accepted. Of course, I support the amendment. I engaged with the Irish Dental Association on many of these issues. It is troubling that we have a representative body lobbying us as legislators to say that standards can and should be improved in a whole range of areas. Like Deputy Shortall, I welcome the fact that the Minister has had…

Is there a timeframe?

The Minister has already made that point.

My first question is in respect of the roll-out of free GP care. As the Minister will be aware, we discussed this at yesterday's meeting of the Joint Committee on Health. Will he give the House an update as to when the additional cards that were promised in budget 2023 will be delivered and the engagements he is having with the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, to progress this matter?

The date of 1 April was not one I set but one that was set very clearly by the Minister in the budget for this year. Ministers make big announcements like this. It was a big announcement and it is significant that we are looking to expand free GP care to hundreds of thousands more citizens. It is something that I included in Sinn Féin’s alternative budget and is very similar to the Minister’s proposals. I also made the point in our alternative budget for this year that we need to put in place the building blocks an…

What we need more than ever now is a roadmap to full universal cover and an agreed timeframe with the representative bodies because for too long, we were trying to do this by age and have lengthy contracts with them, which actually did not work. The delivery of the free GP cards for six- and seven-year-olds was promised years ago and did not happen because of contractual disagreements and so on. An agreed plan between Government and the representative bodies is needed. How will those 500,000 cards be delivered? Whe…

I am sure the Minister will agree that reducing the health waiting lists, the time people must wait for care and the time people must wait in emergency departments needs to be a Government priority. I strongly believe we need a multi-annual plan that considers capacity throughout the healthcare system. It should set out medium- and long-term goals to increase capacity and start meeting some of the targets. Is it the Minister's intention to publish a multi-annual plan? If so, when will we see it?

My point is not so much about the capacity review because beds comprise only one of the ingredients needed. Having spoken to many hospital managers and front-line healthcare staff, I realise that if we are to reduce waiting lists, we will need more beds. The reason there was such a wide range given for the number of beds that may be required, from 2,500 to 7,500, was the figure was dependent on what would happen in the community, including in respect of nursing home beds, recovery beds and step-down beds and the ro…

Hopefully if the electorate has good sense, I will be the Minister who produces that single piece of paper and plan that will deliver a lot of what the Minister talked about but that has not been delivered. All those ingredients are part of what is needed to reduce waiting lists because while there has been some positive movement in terms of long waiters, far too many people are still waiting for access to healthcare. I welcome the 1,500 beds that have been announced. We discussed this yesterday. We need to do what…

The Tánaiste is floundering.

In the Taoiseach's contribution, he recited a remark that was made by the leader of the Labour Party that the Irish people are good at building things. The Irish people are good at building things. The problem for this Government is that many Irish people are building not in Ireland but in America, Australia and elsewhere-----

-----because of the policies of this Government. They have been forced to emigrate because they cannot get homes.

They cannot afford homes.