Mary Lou McDonald
Ceist:8. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [15950/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 15 July 2020
Ceisteanna (8)
Freagraí ó Béal (8 píosaí cainte)
The Cabinet committee on health was established by Government decision on 6 July last. The first meeting has been scheduled for 23 July. It will oversee implementation of programme for Government commitments on health and will receive detailed reports and identify policy areas and consider the implementation of health reforms, including Sláintecare, and the development of mental health services. Its membership will comprise the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and Minister for enterprise, employment and trade, the Minister for climate action, communications networks and transport, the Minister for Health, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. Other Ministers or Ministers of State shall participate as required.
The Cabinet committee on the Government response to Covid-19 has met once under the new Government on 3 July. In addition to the meetings of the full Cabinet and of Cabinet committees, I meet Ministers on an individual basis to focus on particular issues. I met the Minister for Health and the Secretary General on 6 July to discuss priorities in the area of health.
One of the driving rationales for the Cabinet sub-committees that we have discussed is to achieve what the Taoiseach called a coherence in government and cross-departmental working. That is important and it is very challenging for public administration to reach that point. In the case of health, a number of immediacies need to be recognised. The first is the reality that because of the public health crisis, the Covid emergency, many services were compromised and therefore, people's needs, necessarily in many cases, got put on the long finger. There is a shared concern across the Oireachtas regarding the morbidity effects of that and we need to have a really concerted effort not just to get service provision back to where it was but to invest more heavily. I believe that means investment in the public system. I do not believe that the route of privatisation or putting public money into private provision is the way forward. I think we have had that for too long.
Many of the section 39 organisations that provide essential services, albeit at arm's length from the State, have really felt the pinch and pressure in these times of emergency. We need to look again at the entire model of provision, as to how those services are supported. I raise with the Taoiseach the stark reality that for many section 38 and 39 organisations, their ability to independently fundraise has been very seriously compromised because of the emergency provisions and this needs to be taken into account.
The protections and rights as employees of those who work within those organisations providing services also need to be comprehensively reviewed. We must be absolutely sure that in every respect, including pension entitlements, these workers are fully respected, recognised and protected.
The Taoiseach knows, as I do, that this is not currently the case.
On health, I suggest the Taoiseach start taking French lessons. In recognition of the heroic work of healthcare workers, the French Government have just announced an €8 billion package of pay increases for them because of their tremendous work in protecting people and French society in the face of Covid-19. Healthcare workers in this country have done work every bit as heroic to protect us all, to protect our society, and to prevent our health system from being overrun. As a consequence, they have suffered from some of the highest infection rates, in percentage terms, of healthcare workers anywhere in the world. Are we going to follow the example of France and reward them for that fact? They deserve it themselves for what they have done, but if the Government is going to establish the permanent increases in capacity that we have to have to do Covid and non-Covid care - to be able to deal with a second wave and to do all the non-Covid healthcare - we need permanent increases in capacity and that means large-scale recruitment. The big impediments to recruiting healthcare workers are the pay inequalities for new entrants and the low pay generally that nurses, midwives and some healthcare workers have to put up with. There is a double advantage in pay increases and pay equality for healthcare workers. First, it will record the heroes and, second, it will help us establish the permanent increases in healthcare capacity that we need to deal with the post-Covid world.
Deputy McDonald's question referenced section 38 and section 39 organisations; I understand the previous Government did make an allocation from the Dormant Accounts Fund to try to ease the pressure that many of them are under. That said, it is clear that their capacity to fundraise has been significantly reduced. Others have developed novel ways of trying to raise funding but it is not at the level it was for them. In addition, there will be a review of that sector. It is a long-standing model whereby the organisations have considerable autonomy but essentially perform services as agents of the State in terms of contracts and so on. They look after very vulnerable people and people in need in our community and society.
We are concentrating and focusing on the other key issue I mentioned earlier, namely the resumption of services for the treatment of non-Covid illnesses and the development of diagnostics and so on. Last Friday, the Minister for Health and I met HSE officials with a specific focus on the winter initiative and the need to deal with the resumption of services for non-Covid illnesses and that strand of services. It will be challenging, of that there is no doubt. Emergency attendance bed capacity is back at 94%, which is too high, particularly in the context of any resurgence in Covid or the arrival of the flu season. That is why I wanted to meet with the HSE, to drive home early the need for early measures to try to ward off the challenges that will undoubtedly be faced by the health service over the next number of weeks and months.
On Deputy Boyd Barrett's questions, at that meeting I was connected to health service workers all over the country via teleconference. I thanked all of them for the outstanding contribution that our front-line healthcare workers and those working in administration behind the scenes have made to the country in addressing the Covid-19 emergency. I acknowledge the innovation and the commitment they showed as well as the trauma many workers endured when communicating with families who lost loved ones and could not be with them at the time of their passing. Anyone who saw the "RTÉ Investigates" programme about the impact of Covid-19 in one hospital would have been very struck by the emotional experiences of the front-line workers, apart altogether from their professional contribution, so we are very conscious of that.
The French package is perhaps in a different context as well. There were other issues in terms of the wider package. As a country we have had to deal with an enormous issue here. We will have a deficit of approximately €30 billion at the end of the year. These are issues that we continue to examine, and there are continuing pressures. The July stimulus is about trying to help people get back to work and supporting livelihoods of those who have no job at all at the moment and whose prospects are uncertain because of the continued prevalence of Covid-19 in our community. This is a step-by-step approach. Covid is not over. Where financial and economic planning is concerned, we have to plan not just for the next three months but for the next 12 months. We must plan also how we allocate resources now to try to deal with the range of impacts that Covid is having on different sectors of our society and our economy.
The previous Government allowed the HSE to implement a cut of 1% to the 2020 budget for disability services. I raised this matter on behalf of the Disability Action Coalition during the lockdown and the HSE insisted that these so-called efficiencies, which amount to €20 million, had to be found. Far from trying to cushion the blow or give additional support they insisted on this very miserly cut. More recently, the Minister for Health conceded that the cut to disability services was now considered problematic given the huge pressures on the sector and services because to Covid. However, he has not yet clearly stated that the €20 million cut will be reversed, nor has he informed the organisations affected that their budgets will not be cut. I would be very grateful if the Taoiseach clarified this situation for the Disability Action Coalition and the many organisations that they represent.
I call Deputy Boyd Barrett. There are only three minutes left.
We should not set the need to recruit health workers to increase the capacity of the health service against the need to stimulate other parts of the economy. Recruiting health workers should be part of the stimulus for two reasons. First, if our health service is overwhelmed, then we can forget everything else. The stimulus will mean nothing if we have to lock down our economy again. A precondition, therefore, for the reopening of the economy is to get the public health service up to capacity levels that will allow us to continue to function economically. The two go hand in hand.
Second, paying health workers properly and recruiting more of them will in itself be a stimulus to the economy and to every part of the country that has health service facilities or hospitals. In Dún Laoghaire, St. Michael's Hospital holds the local economy together. I am sure that is true for Tallaght and many other parts of the country where there are hospitals, so the two are not set against one another; they are intimately connected. It is very important that the Government recognises that in the July stimulus from both an economic point of view and from the imperative of getting our health service up to the capacity levels we need to be able to function alongside Covid-19.
To respond to both Deputies, we are no longer talking about amounts of €20 million where health is concerned. We are talking about billions of euro being required by the Department of Health.
The Estimates for the next 12 months will be quite staggering relative to what was spent prior to the emergence of the virus and issues to do with personal protective equipment and a variety of other measures to support hospitals and staff. Deputy Boyd Barrett is correct; I did not mean to juxtapose the two. Of course, recruitment to health is very important and we need not only to continue to recruit but also to make conditions better and enhance our human resource service and performance in the health service in general so that not only do we recruit people but we retain them. This is something on which I will be particularly strong.
With regard to disability services and the cut, I will again engage with the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, on this. There will be substantial increases in health funding. We have already seen the Supplementary Estimate but more will be needed to deal with many of the issues that Covid is bringing on board.
Written Answers are published on the Oireachtas website.