3 February 2000 Edition

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Health inequality slammed

The state of our public health service is an indictment of the values which imbue the Celtic Tiger economy, according to Sinn Féin's Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin. The Cavan/Monaghan TD was speaking in support of a motion criticising waiting lists and the other serious problems in the health service. He urged the new minister, Mícheál Martin, to adopt a fresh approach.

Speaking in the Dáil on Tuesday evening, Ó Caoláin said:

``A year ago in this Dáil I supported the motion of no confidence in the outgoing Minister for Health and Children Brian Cowen. I joined other members at that time in deploring the desperate situation in our hospitals as waiting lists grew and as patients faced delays which were damaging their health.

``If anything, the situation has deteriorated since then. Since the vote of no confidence in February 1999 we have had the nurses' strike, which was one of the gravest situations ever faced by our health service. The massive public support for the nurses was also a vote of no confidence by the people in this government's management of the health services. It was a scandal that the nurses should have had to strike at all. What greater service can any person give than to care for the ill, the elderly and the infirm?

This service deserves the fullest possible remuneration. It is grossly inequitable and a damning indictment of the values which imbue this Celtic Tiger economy that these carers had to strike for decent pay while a private individual who recently profited personally to the tune of £300 million from the sale of a telecommunications company should be almost canonised in the media.

``The failure over many years to properly remunerate the nurses is central to the grave problems now afflicting the health services - including long waiting lists, closed wards and state-of-the-art surgical facilities in some locations which cannot be used. Nurses and other health professionals have been leaving our public health system. There continues to be a disincentive to young people to enter the nursing profession, seeing as they do the inhuman working hours and pressurised conditions faced by nursing staff in our hospitals, and seeing also the attractions of employment in other sectors. While the resolution of the nurses' strike may have addressed this to a certain extent the shortage of nurses is still causing daily crises in our hospitals.

``Only last week, student nurses had to demonstrate outside Leinster House to demand the abolition of the £2,500 fee for their fourth year of nursing studies and the payment of a subsistence grant. These students are discriminated against and here we have another disincentive to young people to take up careers in nursing. I urge the new minister to address this without delay.

``A glaring example of the flawed approach to the health services by this government was the dictatorial decision of the outgoing minister to restrict the medicinal herb St. John's Wort. No account was taken of the thousands of people who use this product safely and beneficially. No account was taken of the growing herbal medicine sector. This decision can only benefit the large multinational pharmaceutical companies who seek to monopolise healthcare. Again I urge the new minister to address this issue urgently and respond to the needs and the reasonable representations of people throughout this state by reversing that decision.

``Another priority for the new minister must be the dangerous situation with regard to HIV and AIDS. As recently as Sunday the director of the HIV/AIDS support group, Cairde, stated that the Eastern Health Board, where 90% of cases occur, has no real HIV strategy. A new national strategy is promised and this must be expedited. I point to the reality that 38% of infections are caused by intravenous drug abuse and this highlights the failure of successive governments to provide proper treatment and continuing aftercare for drug abusers and to tackle the heroin problem, and the climate of social exclusion in which it thrives. Tonight, my colleague councillors here in Dublin are attending a remembrance service for the young people in this city who have perished and continue to perish every week in the heroin holocaust.

``I am glad that this motion concludes with positive proposals which I endorse and I urge the new minister to take them on board and adopt a new and positive approach which can provide our people with the health service they need and deserve.''

 

Governments failed to challenge beef cartel



Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin supported a motion of no confidence in the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development in the Dáil last week arising out of the recent crisis in the beef industry. The Cavan/Monaghan TD said he did so because of the failure of successive ministers and successive governments to confront the cartel in the beef industry.

Ó Caoláin said:

``The massive confrontation which we have seen in the beef industry was a crisis waiting to happen. Given the deep structural problems in the beef sector the farming community and the meat factory owners were clearly on a collision course unless there was effective management by the government. Instead of that effective stewardship, we had the government mismanagement of the meat inspection issue, which was the torch that lit the bonfire.

``I commend the farmers for their militancy. Direct action was needed to challenge the cartel operating in the beef industry and it was remarkable that the action won widespread public support, far beyond the farming community itself. The crisis was deepened by the use of the courts by the meat plant owners against the Irish Farmers Association. The imposition of massive fines on the IFA stands in stark contrast to the lack of action against those corrupt sectors of the industry exposed in the Beef Tribunal.

The use of the courts by the factories showed a punitive approach and a lack of commitment to resolve the dispute.

``The farmers have now been vindicated in their claim that what was effectively a cartel was operating in the beef industry. This penalised both the farmers and the consumers in terms of prices. I hope that this IFA action, and the local bargaining which has been undertaken, is the beginning of the end of the cartel. Local direct action has led to local bargaining, an effective exercise in people power. But the problems in the beef industry remain. The domination of the industry by the three big players - AIBP, Dawn Meats and Kepak may yet reverse the progress made by the IFA in securing 90p per pound.

``The Working Group established by this government to examine the beef industry looks like a measure conjured up simply to be seen to be doing something.''

 

Cosy Dáil deal challenged



The cosy arrangement between the government parties, Fine Gael and Labour which divides Dáil time between them and discriminates against smaller parties, was challenged by Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin this week.

During the Order of Business in the Dáil on Tuesday, the Leas Ceann Chomhairle, Rory O'Hanlon (Fianna Fáil, Cavan/Monaghan), refused to allow Ó Caoláin to speak on a proposal to take a motion without debate. The motion in question continues the practice whereby Private Members Time - the time allocated to Opposition parties to propose and speak on their own bills and motions - is monopolised by Fine Gael and Labour. The Sinn Féin TD addressed the Leas Ceann Chomhairle:

``I am disappointed that in the opportunity to address the issue of Standing Order 106 which you had asked Members to address, you did not afford me the opportunity to address the substantive issue at that time. You should have allowed me speak. In standing and indicating I wished to speak I should have been afforded the opportunity to do so.''

Speaking against the motion, Ó Caoláin said:

``Standing Order 106 has been used to discriminate against the smaller parties in this House, namely, Sinn Féin, the Green Party and the Socialist Party time and time again. We are seeing a situation once more where the accommodation is only for the two major parties, Fine Gael and Labour in opposition. This is simply unacceptable. The word ``muzzle'' was used earlier. The collective muzzling of the representation of the smaller opinions in this House has happened time and again during the past two and half years of this term of the 28th Dáil. The reality is that we have been excluded from access to Private Members' time and the opportunity of participation in statements before the House.''

Fianna Fáil, the PDs, Fine Gael and Labour combined to pass the motion, while Sinn Féin, the Greens, the Socialist Party's Joe Higgins and Independent Tony Gregory opposed it.


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