More than two years ago, 18 distraught families learned that their children's organs had been sent to Belgium for incineration without their knowledge or consent. The South/Southwest Hospital Group was to complete and publish a report on the incidents at Cork University Maternity Hospital with the involvement of the affected families. In September 2020, the Minister for Health encouraged families to participate in the review. He stated, "the hospital group has committed to completing it by early November." It was n…

The delays on the part of the Government and the HSE over the past two years in respect of this matter have caused major hurt and distress to the families involved. What is happening is simply not good enough. I have met some of the families involved and am aware that they believe they are being stonewalled. The Tánaiste says they will get sight of the report in a couple of weeks' time, but similar promises were made in the past. The families were promised that they would get sight of the draft report. That is bein…

The news today that charges on most toll roads are to increase to their maximum level from 1 January is another blow to workers and families. It comes on top of the record fuel prices that motorists are paying. As the Tánaiste knows, workers and families are struggling to get by and these toll increases will really hurt commuters. Tolls disproportionately impact those living in rural areas who are forced to use a car because public transport is not an option. During the pandemic the taxpayer had to step in and pay …

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

I am sharing time with colleagues. Sinn Féin will support this motion on long Covid. I thank its authors, the Regional Group, and its proposer, Deputy Naughten, for the work he has done in this area over the past number of months. This is an area that the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health has dealt with on a number of occasions. A number of very important witnesses have appeared before that committee, including Dr. John Lambert, who was mentioned. Many of the people who have come before the committee have been q…

It is not populist to accept there is an emergency.

Cop yourself on.

Shocking.

Hear, hear.

I wish to be associated with the warm welcome of the funding for the North Quays in Waterford. It is a great day for Waterford. Well done to all involved. I raise the issue of spinal surgeries for children with scoliosis and spina bifida. The Minister earlier this year presented a plan which, in fairness, was a collaboration of working with the hospitals, but also with the Opposition. The plan set out funding on the one hand but also a number of targets on the other. The first target is that we would reduce the num…

Last week, “RTÉ Investigates” aired a heart-breaking programme on organ retention for the second time this year. I spoke to a number of families who took part in that programme. One such parent, Paula, from Cavan, lost her son, Tadhg. Some 17 months after she buried her son, she received a cold call from the HSE to say that the child’s organs were still being retained against and without her knowledge. It is devastating. I spoke to other parents as well. She asked me to ask the Minister directly whether he can give…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — the nature and level of care delivered in the home must change to facilitate people staying at home for longer, to reduce periods of stay away from home either at hospital or at other care facilities, and to implement the Right Care, Right Place, Right Time policies; — the average person in receipt of home care receives approximately eight hours of care a week, and this is likely to grow significantly as higher levels and greater volume of care is delivered in the home; — to…

Hear, hear.

I thank everybody who contributed to this debate. I also thank both Ministers of State for their contributions. This is one of those areas where we all agree on most of what we are saying. We all agree that people, in the first instance and where possible, should be cared for in the home and that those people doing the caring should be better looked after. It then becomes an issue of speed of delivery, and the reforms and changes that are necessary, in addition to political will. I welcome the Minister of State's c…

We have a crisis in general practice. We have had reports in recent days of GPs and trainees seeking to emigrate. They are seeking to leave this State because they do not feel they will have opportunities here. The Minister will be aware that while I support the extension of free GP care, some concerns have been expressed by representative bodies about the capacity. We know out-of-hours GP services are not what they should be. What is the Minister's plan for general practice in the coming months and the coming year…

Obviously, I welcome any additional funding that goes into general practice, but I have also engaged with the representative bodies in recent years, in particular in recent weeks and months, since the Government's announcement. There are solutions. What GPs say to me is that we need to train more GPs and we need to increase the number of training places. I agree about practice nurses and that we need protected funding for training in order that we can have a better skills mix within general practice. We must also p…

Saying it and doing it are two different things. Unfortunately, right across the healthcare system we have not seen the ratcheting up of training places that we need. In Sinn Féin's alternative budget I set out what we would have done this year, namely, 1,500 additional graduate and undergraduate positions across all the fields of study and increased GP training. Having a workforce planning strategy is very important and increasing training places is central to it. That must be done. When the Minister talks about i…

The Minister recently stated, presumably in response to a journalist, that if there were 2 million people on waiting lists, Sinn Féin would not be happy, which is obviously a political charge. At this point, 1.3 million people are on hospital waiting lists. That does not make me happy; in fact, it makes me angry and frustrated because, like him, I deal with patients every day who have concerns about how long they have been awaiting access to care. Approximately 900,000 people are on acute hospital waiting lists and…

Of course, I welcome any reduction in the length of time people are awaiting care and I acknowledge the slight drop in that this year, but it is not just about people who are being treated. According to my latest figures, 60,000 patients were taken off the waiting lists through a process of validation. I do not disagree with that - it needs to be done because the waiting lists have to be fit for purpose - but they are not all people actually being treated. Some of it relates to the fact that we are cleaning up the …