Danny Healy-Rae criticises healthcare and public service failings
Danny Healy-Rae spoke to the Cathaoirleach about the impact of pandemic policies on non-COVID care and rural services, arguing that cancer screening, mental health, district beds, school transport and rural businesses have been neglected. He thanked frontline workers but criticised the Taoiseach and the minister for hospital bed closures, the jeopardised cross-border directive, school transport failures and banks ignoring young people seeking mortgages.
Frontline praise and wider harms
He opened by thanking frontline workers in hospitals and nursing homes for doing "Trojan work", while warning that people have died of other conditions and that non-COVID patients have suffered because services were diverted to the coronavirus response.
Cancer screening and non-COVID treatment gaps
He said cancer screening and patients awaiting operations for hips and knees have been left behind, suffering pain and neglect, and predicted the long-term damage of those delays and omissions will become clear in time.
Cross-border directive and private hospitals
He raised concerns that the cross-border directive is in serious jeopardy after 31st January and said he and Michael Collins are at their wit's end about what will happen next. He accused the public takeover of services of sidelining private hospitals, leaving people who paid for private healthcare unable to access their care.
Mental health, beds and local closures
He cited a damning Mental Health Commission report on deficiencies in Kerry mental health services, flagged loneliness and suicide among middle-aged people, and criticised the Taoiseach for closing district hospital beds — including 27 beds in a public nursing home in Killarney that remain closed.
Transport, rural economy and banking issues
He outlined school transport failures under the 50% rule that left many students without tickets and up to 18–20 students standing at the roadside; described rural pubs closed for months and communities suffering; questioned why farm inspections continue while farmers and businesses cannot get help; and accused banks of using the coronavirus as an excuse to refuse mortgages to young people despite state support for banks.
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Thank you very much, Cathaoirleach. First of all, I want to thank our frontline workers in Ayn Carey, who did massive work in our hospitals, in our nursing homes, and anywhere they were required, they did their level best and did Trojan work, and I want to especially thank them. I suppose I have to say to the Minister that people have been dying of other things as well as from the coronavirus, and I feel that cancer screening, and people with cancer, and people with hips and knees and all those things, they have been left behind and suffering and pain, and in time the tale will be told of the damage and the neglect that has been meted out to these people. Elderly and sick people in their own homes have been, by and large, left to their own devices because GPs were disallowed and couldn't go to their homes, and in severe cases, the other people could do was to go to the A&E. Even people who had paid private healthcare, they have been neglected and couldn't access their services that they had paid for and rightly deserve to get, but because the public hospitals took over, the private hospitals, they were left behind. The cross-border directive is now in serious jeopardy, and myself and Michael Collins are at our wit's ends because we don't know what's going to happen after the 31st of January, and it was so important to keep it going, to ensure that people didn't lose their sight, or that they won't be continuing to suffer in pain, and it just seems that the Taoiseach is not interested in keeping it going. Mental health and suicide among middle-aged people, loneliness. A damning report by the Mental Health Commission recently cited major deficiencies in the level of mental health care to patients in Kerry, and it's getting worse rather than better. Minister, you and your Taoiseach said that he would provide more district beds, and beds for people that needed to go into hospitals. What he had actually done, he closed down beds in our district hospitals, and in one home, a public nursing home in Killarney, he closed 27 beds. Minister, and they're still closed. School transport, the 50% rule, really, really came to light in Kerry, where what he did was he didn't give people the service, and the way he did it was he wouldn't give them tickets. It's people that always had tickets to go to the secondary school. They didn't get tickets until very recently, and all of them don't have their tickets yet. Even college students in Killarney were disenfranchised. They couldn't go to Killarney because what was there, indeed, they put on another run from Dingle to Killarney and Killarney, but they didn't have drivers to continue. The school bus going to the school bus going to the IT entry from Killarney and left 18 and 20 students standing on the side of the road for several days. Rural pubs, they're closed all the year, Minister. And that's one part of it. Those people are suffering mentally and financially because of that. But the people that used to frequent those pubs, the people from the hills and glens of Kerry, many of them haven't seen a point since last March. And it could be next March that they'll maybe get a point, or maybe further on. How is it, Minister, that farm inspections are taking place all the time by all the agencies, even though that when farmers want something or when business people want something, the reason given for not helping them is, oh, the coronavirus, we can't go out. But the enforcement officers and inspectors can go out all right. The banks then, they are using the coronavirus as well to safeguard themselves. And many people that are rightfully entitled, young people that want to put a roof over their own heads, and they should be lauded for doing that because we know what's happening with the housing list and the social housing list. But these people are being ignored by the banks. That's what they're doing. Even though that we, as a nation, bailed out the banks, they're ignoring the young people that want to access a mortgage for the purpose of putting a roof over their heads. I think that's a disaster, Minister, and he'll have to call him aside and ensure that he will get what they're rightfully deserved. Thank you very much.
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