SEANAD REPORT:DR LIAM TWOMEY (FG) accused Minister for Health Mary Harney of misleading cystic fibrosis sufferers and their families by suggesting that urgently needed facilities for such patients could be provided through the involvement of the private sector.
It had been Government policy since 2005 to rely on the private sector to provide additional hospital beds and services, but not a single bed had been added through such an approach, he said.
Dr Twomey said it was unlikely that the promised isolation unit in St Vincent’s hospital, Dublin, would materialise within the next four or five years.
A Fine Gael attempt to obtain an emergency debate, and to have Ms Harney explain the apparent decision not to proceed with the unit in the promised timeframe, was defeated by 29 votes to 23.
Fine Gael Seanad leader Frances Fitzgerald said it was an absolute disgrace that, despite the Celtic Tiger and billions of euro going through the economy, it had not been possible to provide basic facilities for people who were among the most vulnerable in the country and needy in terms of medical care.
She said that anybody who had heard Orla Tinsley on RTÉ recently must have been heartbroken to hear what she and her family, as well as other patients, were facing on a day-to-day basis.
“It is absolutely outrageous,’’ she added.
Jerry Buttimer (FG) said the U-turn on the timely provision of the isolation facility showed that the Government had lost its moral compass.
Joe O’Toole (Independent) claimed that the time of the courts was being wasted in an attempt to keep women from joining a golf club on the northside of Dublin.
Some elderly types could not handle the women in their lives or wished to keep them outside the door. It was an issue which required a certain element of discussion to, at the very least, ridicule those people, and, at the very most maybe, to educate them towards equality. “I really think there is a serious issue in our society where people can go to such lengths on such an issue.’’
Eugene Regan (FG) intervened to say he believed that the case was ongoing and he was not sure Mr O’Toole was correct in commenting on it at this stage.
Amid some laughter, Mr O’Toole replied: “That is a very fair correction. I withdraw everything I said. I will put it all on hold until the result is in.’’
