The Government recently introduced legislation to facilitate the dissolution of the board of St. Luke’s hospital and the transfer of staff in the hospital and the hospital’s assets and liabilities to the HSE. Lucinda expressed her concern at this development:

“In contrast to the HSE, St. Luke’s Hospital, otherwise known as “The Haven in Rathgar”, is a beacon, a shining light, in the administrative labyrinth that is the health services here. Since 1954, when it was formally established, St. Luke’s has provided the best quality of care for its patients and the best possible services to cancer patients from all over the country. Every family has been touched in some way by St. Luke’s Hospital. Virtually every family has had some family member or friend attend St. Luke’s at some point. Yet, St. Luke’s is to cease operation in 2014. It is all very well to point to expert reports, expert opinion and the most cutting edge of medical advice, but it is difficult to explain to even the most intelligent human beings why the Government wants to dismantle one of the few public hospitals that functions and does its job with aplomb and replace it with a subsumed and submerged cancer service that will be provided via St. James’s Hospital. The latter does not rank as one of the top hospitals in terms of hygiene, services available or its ethos and environment. (more…)

Dáil speech by Lucinda Creighton on Carer’s Allowance, 29 June 2010

I am very pleased to have an opportunity to raise the very important issue of the carer’s allowance in the Chamber this evening. It is impossible to overstate the huge importance and the value of the role of carers in Irish society. In particular, I refer to the role they play and the great social value of the work they do in keeping families together, binding communities and keeping people with disabilities, people with medical problems and older people in their own homes, and helping them avoid the fate of being consigned to nursing homes and surrounded by strangers, even though these may be health care professionals. People deserve to live in a family environment and should be afforded the dignity of availing of this in their twilight years.

Carers also have a very important monetary impact on Irish society. There are 161,000 family carers in this country at the moment. It is estimated that they contribute the monetary equivalent of €2.5 billion to the Irish economy each year through the amount of hours they invest in caring for family members. We cannot afford to ignore that. (more…)

Lucinda’s speech on the dissolution of the Board of St. Luke’s Hospital

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on this important Bill but I am disappointed that the Minister is not present for the debate. It would be fitting that the Minister would see fit to appear in the House to take this legislation given its important and far-reaching ramifications for the health service in the future. It is important it is noted that the Minister did not see fit to come to the House.

The purpose of this Bill is the dissolution of the board of St. Luke’s hospital and the transfer of staff in the hospital and the hospital’s assets and liabilities to the HSE. I take the opportunity to express some degree of concern at that development. It is well-recorded that politicians and the public have almost lost all confidence in the Health Service Executive. It is difficult to have confidence in that body.

The original concept of the HSE was a good one. The aspirations of the Minister and the Government in establishing it were well-intentioned but the objective of eliminating bureaucracy and the parochial element associated with the old-style, traditional health boards was not achieved. What replaced the traditional health boards is essentially an ever-expanding and pretty frightening monster, namely, the HSE.

What we have been left with is a complete absence of the streamlining of services. (more…)

As the Adoption Bill has been making its way through the legislative procedure, Fine Gael has been pushing the Government to include transitional arrangements for inter-country adoptions, so that those who have already been assessed for foreign adoption are not left in limbo.

Lucinda has had a number of meetings with couples affected by the changes in the adoption process, especially those who had hoped to adopt under bi-lateral agreements with Vietnam, Russia and Ethiopia who now find themselves left in limbo, and she fully supports them in the campaign for an equitable solution that recognises the long and arduous process they have been through in the hope of adopting.

The Health and Children Committee is presently processing the Committee Stage of the Adoption Bill 2009. Various amendments to the Bill including an amendment with regard to providing for transitional arrangements in respect of inter-country adoption have been tabled by Fine Gael.

In particular, Alan Shatter TD, Fine Gael Spokesperson on Children has proposed an amendment which would allow those already in the adoption system to continue with the process: (more…)

Cuts to Dental, Optical and Aural Treatment Schemes Unacceptable

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Adjournment matter. I wish to raise the issue of the abolition of the PRSI scheme for dental and optical services for people throughout this State. I wish to put on record that my party and I are more than disappointed by the scrapping in the recent budget of essential services for which people pay. The full impact and implications of this course have not yet been realised by the public at large. However, people will realise this as the year progresses. They will make appointments to have their regular checkups, to have their teeth cleaned or to undergo the usual treatments they have come to expect under the PRSI scheme, only to find they are no longer available to them. (more…)