The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation's conference is being held in Killarney this week and the issue of health services is very much to the fore at that conference. The general secretary of that organisation, Liam Doran, has raised the issue of trolleys and the fact hospital managements in some hospitals are deliberately misleading the trolley count and are hiding trolleys with patients on them to ensure the trolley count is reduced to comply with the Government's intentions and public relations strategy. Does the Tánaiste accept the veracity of Mr. Doran's comments that managements are under such pressure from the Government to reduce the trolley count that they are intentionally hiding trolleys to ensure there is a reduction? It is easy to reduce the trolley count if one is hiding them from the counting process.
Leaders’ Questions
Get a metal detector.
The INMO conference has heard that nurses are calling for a hotline to be established so they can complain about patient safety being compromised. Does the Tánaiste accept the veracity of Mr. Doran's comments that trolley counts are being manipulated to comply with Government pressure to reduce them? Does he also accept that nurses, who are at the front line of the health services, are very concerned about patient safety being compromised?
I heard an interview with the general secretary of the INMO yesterday and heard him acknowledge that the number of people waiting on trolleys was significantly down from last year. The figure used was in the order of 15% or 16%. I also heard him acknowledge that the strategy the Government and the Minister for Health are pursuing, through the special delivery unit, is working. At a practical level, it would be very difficult to hide trolleys in a hospital and I do not think anybody would want to do that.
The Government and the Minister for Health are very open to hearing whatever advice can be provided by people at the front line of our health services. Nurses, doctors and all of those who work in our hospitals know at first hand what is happening in hospitals. The Government has made it clear that it wants to hear from people at the front line and is willing to take on board any suggestion they have to make.
We all acknowledge there has been a reduction in the number of people waiting on trolleys. It is down 17% but on a year-on-year basis since 2007, it is up, so we have a major crisis in our hospitals, in particular in our emergency departments. Does the Tánaiste accept the veracity of Mr. Doran's comments that up to ten hospital managements are misleading the trolley count and are placing trolleys in areas where they are not being counted?
Does Deputy Kelleher know who counts them?
We are not talking about trolleys but about patients on trolleys and about compromising patient safety. There have been several motions at the INMO conference and many of them relate to the fact that those at the front line feel they cannot safely provide a health service because it is compromised continually as a result of the pressures being put on managements and the lack of front line resources.
Look at what Fianna Fáil did to the health service.
Let us acknowledge a success where there is success. The number of people on trolleys is down by 17% over the course of the past year and that is acknowledged by the INMO, which counts the trolleys. The numbers are down and the INMO has acknowledged that the strategy being pursued, through the special delivery unit, is working.
Of course, there is more to be done and more improvements to be achieved. The Government and the Minister for Health will continue with that work and are open to hearing from the people at the front line, including nurses, what needs to be done. The bottom line here is that the number of people on trolleys is down and by any standard, a 17% reduction over the course of the past year is a significant one.
As the Tánaiste knows, the news from Germany yesterday was that opposition to austerity and the austerity treaty is growing. The peoples of France, Greece, Italy and Germany are opposed to austerity. Indeed, politicians in some of those countries are prepared to take a stand. As the Tánaiste knows, the Bundestag has needed to abandon its plans for ratification of the treaty because Labour's sister party has done the right thing and called the treaty what it is, namely, a bad deal.
We know about the divisions within Fianna Fáil over the treaty, but there are divisions within the Tánaiste's party as well. According to the Labour deputy mayor of Galway city, Ms Collette Connolly, many members of that party share her opposition to the austerity treaty but will not say so publicly.
It is no laughing matter.
She stated: "I won't be voting for the treaty. It's anti-democratic. They shouldn't put issues about the Constitution to the people and say ‘if you don't support this, you'll be punished'".
The other four Labour councillors are voting for it.
Ms Connolly and the Tánaiste's colleague on Fingal County Council, Mr. Cian O'Callaghan, described the treaty as a step too far. Fine Gael also has divisions.
Deputy McDonald is following everyone very closely.
The mayor of Longford, Mr. James Keogh, says-----
Speaking as a business person, he is urging people to vote "No".
That will put manners on the Government.
I am sure that, despite the heckling to my right,-----
Perhaps I could have a question.
-----there are Deputies within the Labour Party who equally recognise that this treaty is a bad deal. Is it not time for the Tánaiste to join the growing opposition to austerity across Europe and within his own party?
Crack the whip.
Everyone that Sinn Féin mentioned and everyone else in the country will have an opportunity on 31 May to decide individually on this treaty. That is why we have referendums. Individual citizens can enter polling booths and make decisions on what is in the best interests of Ireland and its people. By any standard, it is in people's best interests to ensure access to emergency funding if necessary. The only certain emergency funding that will be available to the State after 2013 is the European Stability Mechanism, ESM, and we must ratify the treaty to access it.
Consider the jobs announcements made recently. Abbott announced 175 jobs in Sligo, HP announced 280 jobs in Galway and Kildare, Microsoft announced a €130 million investment in Dublin, Mylan announced 500 jobs in north Dublin,-----
Change the record.
-----Eli Lilly announced 500 jobs in Cork South-West, Cisco announced 115 jobs in Galway,-----
They have been well announced by now.
-----Apple announced 500 jobs in Cork, PayPal announced 1,000 jobs in Louth,-----
Keep going.
-----Amgen announced 100 jobs in Dún Laoghaire and SAP announced 250 jobs in Citywest and Galway.
Forty thousand emigrants.
On Tuesday, Total Defense announced it would create an extra 100 jobs in Dublin. Today's announcement by Aviva will turn around what was originally a bad job loss story and create additional jobs.
Was that with the Government's intervention?
We want job creation to continue. If it is to do so, investors must have confidence in this country and be confident that there are no doubts concerning our relationship with the euro. They must also have confidence in the euro itself. The treaty is about stability in the euro, investor confidence and providing access to emergency funding if necessary. It is in the best interests of this country and our people. It is for Ireland as a sovereign state and our people individually and independently to make a decision on 31 May.
The Tánaiste ducked the question.
Let that be the end of it.
He just forgot to tell them.
All of those announcements were welcome and were made in the absence of the austerity treaty. The one figure that the Tánaiste omitted from his response was the nearly 500,000 people still on the live register. He has been found out.
A Deputy
He is a bad man.
Sinn Féin wants to pile people onto the live register.
The political sands are shifting and Labour's sister parties in the European Union, the trade union movement and, most importantly, the citizens of France, Greece,-----
Greece cannot form a government.
-----Italy and Britain have recognised categorically that austerity is not working.
I thought we were Irish.
There is little sense in the Tánaiste throwing out red herrings such as funding or the absurd argument that austerity will deliver growth when it has patently failed to do so.
Could we have a question, please?
The Tánaiste stated that each citizen has a right to cast his or her vote. Can I take it that Labour Party members, supporters and elected representatives have a free hand in voting? Clearly, there is unease among the party's grassroots.
It is a democratic organisation, unlike Deputy McDonald's.
If the Tánaiste is not prepared-----
It is not an army.
-----to take account of the clear political shift away from austerity across the Continent,-----
Sinn Féin prefers austerity.
-----perhaps he might consider listening to those within his party's grassroots, people who know that austerity has failed and that it will not deliver jobs or prosperity, who know how badly people are suffering-----
Could we have the Deputy's question?
-----and who are not prepared to go along with the Tánaiste's delusional stance-----
A Deputy
The Deputy should speak for herself.
-----in blindly supporting a treaty-----
Deputy McDonald has gone way over time.
-----that is so clearly against the interests of this State and her citizens.
We know what Sinn Féin does with dissenters.
Perhaps Deputies will give the Tánaiste a chance to reply.
Will he answer the question?
No one is in favour of or wants austerity. The question is-----
The Tánaiste-----
Hold on. Deputies should not get excited.
It is emotional.
The question is, how do we get out of austerity. One gets out of it by-----
More austerity.
-----ensuring that there is investment in our country and jobs are created. These are not red herrings.
Give us the list again.
They are real jobs announced by people and companies who have decided to invest in this country because the Government has succeeded in restoring international confidence in Ireland. I have been a Member of the House for a long time. In that time, I have not seen a succession of job announcements to match this one. We need to continue this process. The way out of our economic difficulty is to grow the economy and create jobs. I welcome-----
Has the Tánaiste said that to his Labour Party colleagues on the local authorities?
They are the red herrings.
Every individual will enter a polling booth in privacy and cast his or her vote. Sinn Féin has a rather unique way of dealing with political dissent and political disagreement.
The Tánaiste knows about that.
None of us particularly wants to take that route.
What about the Tánaiste's comrades on Gardiner Street?
The Government has made it clear from the outset that the strategy to economic recovery requires growth. For this reason, the Taoiseach wrote to the President of the European Council last year and set out a growth strategy. It is for this reason that a growth agenda was agreed at the January summit-----
Where is it?
-----and growth was written into the text of the treaty on which we are voting. The treaty is about promoting growth, job creation, competitiveness and social cohesion.
Is the Tánaiste conceding that there is dissent within the Labour Party on that point?
In this light, we welcome the election of a new French President who wants to accelerate the growth agenda.
He wants to change the treaty.
What has happened in Greece, which Deputy McDonald appears to be welcoming, is not something that the people of this country would welcome, given the levels of social unrest and political instability on top of that country's economic difficulties.
That is their political decision. It has nothing to do with this Government.
Sinn Féin and others invited our Government to take Greece's route only six months ago. Does Sinn Féin still advise that?
A Deputy
Greece is the word.
We are taking our route to recovery. It means investor confidence and continued inward investment.
And austerity.
To promote the growth agenda being discussed in Europe, we need stability in the European economy and the euro.
The treaty will not deliver stability.
For this reason, we need to vote "Yes" on 31 May.
Deputies
Hear, hear.
The Government's determination to support the austerity treaty is increasingly bizarre. It appears to be taking the best boy in the class routine a bit too far. Yesterday the revolt against the austerity agenda and the treaty spread to Germany. The architect of the treaty and guru of austerity, Chancellor Angela Merkel, cannot even get the treaty through her own Parliament. The Tánaiste's comrades in the SPD explained their refusal to ratify the fiscal treaty as a refusal to support a cutback orgy. If his comrades can make such a claim in the context of the relatively healthy German economy, how on earth can he support the same cutback orgy that would be required in the traumatised Irish economy to meet the targets of the fiscal treaty? It is extraordinary.
Can he confirm his Minister's assertion in this House yesterday that even if we vote "No" to the fiscal treaty we will still commit up to €11 billion to the very ESM fund which the Government claims we will be unable to access?
I urge the Tánaiste to make the momentous announcement we did not hear from Deputy Ó Cuív the other day and abandon this discredited and doomed treaty. Will he support the demands for real growth and a jobs strategy in Europe rather than continue his commitment to the sinking ship of the fiscal austerity treaty?
Deputy Boyd Barrett wants to take up arms in Galway again.
Good man, Deputy Bannon.
The Tánaiste without interruption.
Deputy Boyd Barrett made a momentous announcement this week when he informed us that his alternative to the treaty is an additional €10 billion in taxes. He would double the amount taken in income tax and on top of that he wants to collapse the euro. Where does he think that will leave us?
Greece.
It may be that what is happening in Greece is a cause for arousal in Deputy Boyd Barrett or some other Members of this House.
There will be fornication yet.
Keep it clean.
Allow the Tánaiste to continue.
However, that is not the route sensible people in this country want to go. The route we want to take is of working our way out of the economic difficulty in which we have found ourselves. In order to do that we have to attract investment and jobs. We are succeeding in that and we want to continue our success. In order to continue that success, there must be confidence in Ireland, the euro and our relationship with the euro. That is why we need to pass this treaty. If we are to avoid what the Deputy calls an orgy of cuts, we need to have access to emergency funding when we require it. If we arrive at 2013 with confidence in Ireland undermined because we rejected the treaty and we are unable to return to the financial markets or access the ESM for emergency funding, there is no coherent answer from anybody who advocates a "No" vote regarding where the emergency funding will be found. There is no answer for the people who work in our public services about how their wages will be paid, for those who depend on social welfare about how their payments will be maintained or for those who depend on hospitals, schools or any of the other services we need to provide. We are working our way out of our economic difficulties and we are making progress in attracting investment. We need to copperfasten that by maintaining confidence and stability in the eurozone and that is why we need to pass the treaty on 31 May.
We have made it clear in our pre-budget submission and again this week that we would only levy wealth taxes on the top 5% of our population-----
You would take €10 billion.
-----and increased income taxes for those who earn more than €100,000 per year. We would not maintain the taxes for low and middle income workers that the Government has imposed.
Wrong.
Instead of cuts for the vulnerable we would impose taxes on the super wealthy and high earners.
He is wrong.
I will pass over the issue-----
Perhaps we can have a question.
-----of the fetish of the Tánaiste and his comrades in the SPD for interesting vocabulary-----
Could we have a question, please?
-----such as orgies and arousals. This is obviously a new theme for the Second International, despite its internal differences on policy regarding the fiscal treaty.
Could we have a question, please? I am getting excited waiting for the question.
The Tánaiste has not explained why, if his comrades in Germany believe this treaty-----
Will you forget about the comrades in Germany and ask the question?
-----will require an orgy of cuts, he remains committed to it. Can he confirm that the Government-----
This is Leaders' Questions.
-----still intends to commit €11 billion to the ESM fund even if we vote "No" to the treaty?
The Deputy is wrong in a number of respects. He is wrong to allege this Government has increased taxes on people on lower incomes. We did not increase tax in the budget.
Stealth taxes.
The household charge.
We took 330,000 people out of the universal charge and we reversed the cut in the national minimum wage. We are not required to contribute €11 billion to the ESM. That figure is the amount that may be called upon. It is different to the amount that countries are required to contribute up front. This country's contribution to the ESM is less than 1.6% of the total fund.
Our population is one of the smallest in Europe.
The immediate issue for this country is maintaining access to the ESM. The eurozone needs to have an emergency fund to support its members. That is the function of the ESM.
The Tánaiste should read the treaty.
It is not unreasonable that every member of the eurozone should contribute to it. The primary issue for Ireland is to be able to access it if we need it. If the treaty is defeated we will not be able to access it.
That is nonsense.
My comrades in Europe, as Deputy Boyd Barrett described them, are in favour of growth. This Government has argued consistently that we also need a growth strategy because the treaty is not sufficient on its own to allow the European economy to recover. That is why we put growth on the agenda before the treaty was negotiated. It is the reason growth is contained in the text of the treaty and why the conclusions in January referred to a parallel growth strategy. It is a good thing for this country and for Europe that there are voices who call for an acceleration of the growth agenda.