Speeches
Extracts from Fiona O’Malley Speech in the Dáil on Wednesday 25th October 2006 – Private Members Motion on Role of the Private Health Sector.
I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak about this motion. It is important to be guided by an ideology in politics, but we need to ensure we do not become slaves to our ideologies. The Minister for Health and Children is always criticised, unfortunately, by those who accuse her of being a slave to, or guided by, a particular ideology.
I suggest that the Opposition is completely enslaved by its ideology. The initiative of the Minister for Health and Children in increasing the number of public beds in this country has been completely misinterpreted. I prefer to call it a "reclamation project" because it involves the reclamation of 1,000 public beds, exclusively for the public health service, and needs to be recognised as such. Those who use some warped form of logic like to refer to it as privatisation, however, which does not make any sense. Some 1,000 beds, which are currently subsidised and designated for exclusive use by the private sector, are to be returned to the exclusive use of the public health system. That is what this initiative is actually all about. Those who interpret this policy in any other way are doing it a disservice. They are scaring the public by suggesting that the number of available beds is decreasing.
I cannot believe that the Labour Party wants to perpetuate a system that provides for reserved and subsidised private beds in the publicly funded system. The Labour Party should think about what it is looking for. I am not sure it has really thought through its position.
It has given a knee-jerk reaction to a policy initiative that is demonstrably delivering treatment to and shorter waiting times for the public. That is an example of ideology getting in the way of the perception of service delivery. The Minister's National Treatment Purchase Fund initiative has proven that services can be bought privately in certain circumstances. Why not buy them in such circumstances? What difference does it make to someone aged 60 or 80, for example, who has been waiting for a hip operation for many months or years?
They do not care who is delivering the service as long as they are getting it. That is what is important. The duty of the Minister for Health and Children, the Government and the Parliament is to improve the provision of services to all the citizens of this country and to ensure they get the best value and the best service available. That is what the Minister, Deputy Harney, has proven capable of doing and she will continue to do so.
If anybody else is in charge of the health care service following the next general election, we will wait and see whether they will halt the progress that is well under way.
I noticed when I was listening to the radio this afternoon that Deputy Twomey was in conversation with the Minister he declined to take the opportunity to indicate that he would halt the progress that is under way. I suppose part of the reason he declined to take that opportunity is that he has not yet cut a deal with his putative partners in government.
The difficulty is that the people cannot wait for a health policy to be thrown together by two parties which will not be able to make up the numbers to form a Government.
Such a Government would possibly be supported by the Green Party, but we do not know what its policies are.
The people do not have time to wait for such policies be drawn up. Progress is well under way under the systems which have been in place for some time.
The project that is under way is truly a project of reclamation. Far from privatising the health service, the Minister is restoring to the public health service some public beds which will be exclusively for the public use. It is time for the Opposition parties to be honest and clear about that fact. They should acknowledge the good work that the Minister is doing.