(Cavan): Are we to take it that even after these six years, the Minister will get on with his health scheme and let us see it introduced?
When Deputy O'Higgins introduced the voluntary health scheme, he was told it would not work. It was ridiculed and made little of. That scheme has now been accepted by the country and, indeed, by the Minister, as a complete success. The scheme which Fine Gael propose is based on social insurance under which those in the present social welfare classes would be absolutely free. Above that, there would be a contribution of one-third from the State, and a contribution from employers, employees and the self-employed. That is a scheme which will work and under which there will be an absolutely free choice of doctor, which is the only type of medical assistance that can give satisfaction. Human nature being what it is, patients will become dissatisfied with doctors, for one reason or another, just as they will become dissatisfied with solicitors, or architects, or engineers, or any other professional men. It is not right that they should be tied to a doctor if their personalities happen to be incompatible, if they have rows, if they do not see eye to eye, or if the patient loses confidence in the doctor.
It is a pity the Minister's White Paper was not introduced before this motion was discussed. I trust that we will have an early opportunity of discussing it when it is introduced. When the Minister is replying to this debate, I should like him to tell us when he proposes to implement the White Paper, or when he proposes to bring before this House a health scheme which can be discussed as a definite proposal, because White Papers, informative as they may be— and indeed we have had quite a few over the past 12 months—are not effective. A White Paper will do nothing to relieve the distress which the 1953 Health Act has inflicted on the people who are forced to rely on it. While a White Paper may be all right as a talking point and may create considerable discussion in the country and bring the Minister a lot of information, in itself it is useless.
I am not blaming the present Minister because he has been in office for only a few months, but this question of health has been a burning question since 1961. Irrespective of what is said here, the 1961 general election, by and large, was fought on health. It was one of the major controversies in that election. So controversial was it that immediately after the election a motion was put down in this House, and the first critical issue on which the Government were challenged before the end of 1961, having been elected on 4th October, 1961, was the health issue. Indeed it looked as if the Government might have been defeated on that very motion.
In order to play for time, the Government—the present Minister was not in charge then—set up a Committee of this House to deal with, and report back on, health, thereby, in my opinion, accepting as a fact that the Health Act, 1953 was so unsatisfactory that it was beyond amending, that it could not be amended, because, if it could be amended, surely the Minister would have introduced his amendments then and there.
I want to make this complaint, not against the Minister but against the Government, that, having accepted as a fact in 1961 that the position was unsatisfactory and that it was beyond repair, it is not good enough after four years to come along now with a White Paper which the Minister tells us is to give the people an opportunity of expressing their views on the system. During those four years, the Government should have got down to the task and instead of coming along with a White Paper, they should be coming into the House with definite proposals which could be debated, amended, accepted or rejected.
I believe the Government have no health policy and I believe this White Paper is another effort to stall. The Committee has successfully stalled for four years. I sincerely hope the House and the country will not tolerate any attempt by the Government to stall for another four years. I should like the Minister to tell us now, not when he intends to introduce his White Paper, but when he proposes to introduce in this House concrete proposals for a health scheme that will meet the needs of the people of this country.