Deputy Bannon was in possession and has seven minutes remaining in his time slot.
Health Bill 2008: Second Stage (Resumed).
The following motion was moved by the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, on Wednesday, 10 December 2008:
That the Bill be now read a Second Time.
Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following:
"in view of the fact that the Health Bill 2008,
removes automatic medical card eligibility for people over 70,
reneges on the commitment in the Programme for Government agreed between Fianna Fáil, the Progressive Democrats and the Green Party in 2007 to extend medical card eligibility,
represents a further step away from universal access to public health services based on need alone,
Dáil Éireann declines to give a Second Reading to the Bill."
—(Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin.)
Ceann Comhairle, have we a Minister?
Yes. The Minister of State, Deputy Hoctor, is here.
This Government promised that the vulnerable would be protected in budget 2009. Instead it shamefully took the cutback equivalent of a sledgehammer to the provisions regarding the most vulnerable in the country, our elderly citizens. Shame on this Government. The sledgehammer crashed down on essential medical card provision for the over-70s and 84 Government Deputies voted against the well-being of the sick and vulnerable when they heartlessly voted down the Fine Gael Private Members' motion calling on the Government to reverse its decision to remove universal medical card cover from all those over 70 years of age.
Commitments mean nothing to this Government. Stacking broken promise on broken promise, the Minister has now back-tracked on her worthless guarantee that medical cards would be index-linked to match inflation. Where is that guarantee in the Bill before the House? It is virtually impossible to pin down the Minister. If her word is her bond, God help us and God help the elderly in this country. They need every support they can get. I am sure the Minister of State does not share this sentiment but there is a huge sense of this being a black day in the history of this State and one with which those of us on this side of the House would rather not be associated. For a Bill such as this to be passed by sheer weight of numbers by a Government that has absolutely no regard for the welfare of our elderly, is indeed something one would hope not to be associated with in any capacity. Where is the Government's appreciation of the legacy of prosperity created on the backs of the elderly, created by their hard work? This Bill makes a mockery both of care of the vulnerable and of our democracy. If the 84 Deputies who voted against the elderly on 21 October last were now to put the health and welfare of our senior citizens before their blind loyalty to this heartless Government, the current legislation would be defeated. Universal provision of medical cards has shown a massive payback in terms of the health of the over-70s. Why should the Government Deputies vote to destroy the progress that has been made in improving the health of the many elderly people in the last eight years in order to achieve a saving of just €16 million? It is morally, even legally, wrong to deprive even one elderly person of essential medical care while the Government squanders millions in storing obsolete voting machines, the purchase of which was one of its greatest follies among a long list of Fianna Fáil Government money-squandering fiascoes.
Why should the elderly hand back their medical cards? The Government is responsible for the chaos in HSE funding, not the over-70s, who paid very high rates of taxation and many of whom have discontinued their VHI cover. The Minister has stated that the two month grace period from January to March is designed to give pensioners more time to work out whether they are entitled to a medical card. This is insulting. There is not an elderly person in this country who could not tell the Minister in two minutes flat that he or she is certainly entitled to a medical card. They earned it and every right-minded person in this country is of the view that they should hold on to what is theirs. Why does the Minister think that an extra two months' deliberation will make anyone more likely to hand over what is in essence the golden reward card? It is not a passport to wealth but rather the means to life-giving health benefit.
However, if they were inclined to question their eligibility, the elderly would face total Government induced confusion. The Department of Health and Children and the HSE have proposed five different criteria for eligibility for the over-70s. Hour by hour, if not minute by minute, the criteria have changed, with income limits of the moment being replaced instantly to the confusion of all. The current Government has no grasp of joined-up thinking and the withdrawal of the universal entitlement to medical cards for the over-70s is a prime example of the chaotic and badly thought out measures undertaken by senior Ministers and personnel.
The withdrawal of the medical card is also a direct contradiction of the stated position of both the Minister and Professor Drumm that they would promote primary care, support people in their homes and keep people out of hospital. The problem is that elderly people will be less likely to visit their GPs and more likely to discontinue medication because of cost. These patients will end up in acute hospitals, putting pressure on beds, with a penny-wise, pound-foolish Government not only failing to make savings, but increasing costs and depriving the elderly of the right to live in their own homes and communities.
According to the Central Statistics Office, people over the age of 70 make double the visits to their GP made by other adults. With 5.2 visits per annum, the cost is significantly higher for over 70s than for those below this age group. With almost all they have under threat, from nursing home care to pensions, the elderly must continue the protest they initiated after the budget and take to the streets again in outright defiance of what the Government is doing to them. They must refuse to give up their medical cards.
The Deputy's time has expired.
That is what I encourage any elderly person who comes into my constituency office to do. The Government has squandered the taxpayers' money. Shame on the Minister for Finance and the 84 Deputies who backed him on the day.
It is interesting to note that several days before the budget, the Minister for Finance and officials from the Department of Health and Children were warned by senior officials in the Department of Finance in a memo released under a freedom of information request. It stated the Department of Health and Children appeared to have not considered the risks to be of sufficient concern. While the Minister for Health and Children may be prepared to accept the risks, the Minister for Finance may have been too inexperienced to recognise them. The Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, admitted yesterday evening that the Minister for Finance is inexperienced.
The Deputy is well over his time.
The elderly and their relations are not prepared to accept the certain problems that removing universal medical cards for the over 70s will cause. I ask the Government to reverse the decision even at this, the 11th hour——
We will have to call it a night.
——in the name of our elderly who have given a life's service and paid huge taxes to the State in difficult times. Shame again on the Government for the way it is treating our elderly.
I thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for giving me the opportunity to speak on this issue. I salute you for the independence of mind you have shown when I contacted your office two days ago to ask to speak on this issue in my own right without having to ask the Government or the Opposition for their time.
It is an issue of great importance to me personally because it was partly responsible for me making a difficult personal decision to resign from the Fianna Fáil Party, of which I had been member and public representative for almost 25 years. I find it difficult again to say I will be voting against my former party colleagues on this Bill's proposal. I am glad that two of the most senior party members are in the Chamber — the Ministers of State, Deputy Pat Carey and Deputy John Moloney, two people for whom I have the highest respect.
I cannot understand, however, how the party of which I was a member and the Ministers of State who are still members could agree to the proposal to end universal access to free health care for people over 70, particularly when Fianna Fáil has had a proud and noble tradition of ensuring that, above all, the needs of our elderly are protected in society.
Hear, hear.
Fianna Fáil introduced and, over the past ten years, improved the old age pension and the widow's pension. It was a Fianna Fáil Minister for Finance who introduced the universal free schemes for the elderly such as free travel, television licences and telephones. There was never a question about how much these measures would cost or whether millionaires or the poor would benefit. There was universal access to all these measures. I was always proud of these measures, as were all members of the Fianna Fáil Party.
I cannot understand, no matter how difficult the economic times are, how Fianna Fáil can turn its back on that magnificent proposal on medical cards for the over 70s, brought forward under the leadership of Deputy Bertie Ahern in 2002. It was magnificent that people who had reached seven decades of life and who made a significant contribution to their families, communities and the country were given the peace of mind and security with access to free health care for the rest of their lives. How can the Minister of State, Deputy John Moloney, and the rest of his colleagues agree to the Progressive Democrats Minister for Health and Children's proposal that this should be withdrawn?
I have sat in the Chamber for every speech on Second Stage so far. We got a clear insight from the speech of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, as to what she understands by universal access. Her understanding is that if people go to the doctor, they pay different amounts of money to get the same service. It is the first time I have ever heard that as a description of universal access to health care. I do not believe that is the Fianna Fáil way.
One reason the Progressive Democrats Party was established was to damage Fianna Fáil. What saddens me most of all is that as the Progressive Democrats Party comes to the end of its existence and leaves the political stage, the damage it will really inflict is not on itself but on Fianna Fáil.
There are not many Fianna Fáil Members in the Chamber but some may be watching on their monitors. While it might be in vain, I ask them to consider deeply whether this principle of universal access is one that Fianna Fáil is willing to sacrifice at this late stage. In the past few days at the Select Committee on Health and Children, the Minister for Health and Children proposed a Supplementary Estimate of another €70 million for possible payments to consultants, either this year or next. While I welcome this morning's resolution of the pork crisis, up to €180 million will be found to assist the producers. Yet Fianna Fáil, which holds the majority in Cabinet, cannot see its way to convince the Minister for Health and Children that €16 million can be found to ensure universal access to health care for the over 70s is protected. Any Member of Fianna Fáil who is listening to me, I beg you to support this principle. It is an important core principle for Fianna Fáil people. I know this from the contacts I have had from Fianna Fáil Party members across the country who do not support this move. I beg Fianna Fáil Members to reconsider.
The past six to eight weeks have been a difficult period for me personally. I faced the choice of voting with the Government on the withdrawal of what I felt was a fundamental principle. I could have shut my mouth, just voted and hoped for the best. Instead, my political future is unsure. I entered the House as a Fianna Fáil Member. I do not know if I will ever come back to the House. Something is wrong in our society if when an elected person stands by a principle on which they stood for election but it is withdrawn and they decide to vote against it, that they must the leave the party. It was necessary for me to leave the party and defend what I felt were Fianna Fáil principles from the outside. It is an ironic and difficult situation to be in. There are many in Fianna Fáil who understand my position and others who do not. However, I stood by the principles that made Fianna Fáil a party — a party of all the people. I beg the Fianna Fáil Members please to reconsider this principle before the final vote is taken today.
Debate adjourned.