The Minister for Health Mr Martin staunchly defended the upcoming smoking ban today saying the Government owed workers in the hospitality industry the same duty of care extended to workers in other industries.
Addressing delegates at the Fianna Fail ard fheis in Killarney today Mr Martin that the health service is essentially, about illness-prevention and in that context the workplace must be made safe from the "killing presence of environmental tobacco smoke."
"And workers in the hospitality industry are not lesser human beings than workers in any other industry. They are equal citizens and we - as a Party and as a Government - owe them the same duty of care we owe to the workers in other industries." Mr Martin said.
Mr Martin also told delegates that real gains had been made in the health service but this progress had received little coverage as "problems in the present are always going to be more interesting than gains in the future."
Cancer treatment will improve significantly with the implementation of the Radiation Oncology Services report, with its recommendations backed by international experts in the field, will be a significant milestone in Ireland's development of cancer care, Mr Martin said.
The current reform of the health service will affect every aspect of the health system to achieve the real change the public, the patient and the client want, according to Mr Martin. "We are not tinkering around the edges here - this is change that'll affect every single corner of the system."
"The challenge of achieving fundamental change in a service worked in by 100,000 people cannot be underestimated - and it's not going to happen without them. But it can't be slow change." Mr Martin said.
Reforms are already beginning to show results according to Mr Martin. He said waiting lists in cardiac surgery have been "practically eliminated." St James Hospital has been ranked third in the United Kingdom and Ireland (out of 38 hospitals) for its cardiac surgery performance which Mr Martin said was "a tremendous achievement."
He acknowledged problems persist in the major acute hospital in A&Es "but in many aspects the Acute Hospital Sector is actually performing very well."
He said since 1997 the number of people in acute hospitals has increased by 23 per cent. In the last five years 21,000 more in-patients being treated per annum; 160,000 more day patient cases (a 63 per cent increase) and investment in community beds has increased to take the pressure off the acute system.
"In every area, we're tackling the urgent and at times painfully urgent need for change" Mr Martin said.
"I would invite everybody here - and everybody watching - to check us out. To visit the sites where change for the better has already been achieved."