Speech by Stephen Donnelly TD, Minister for Health at the 82ú Ard Fheis

Healthcare for everyone is a cornerstone of a decent society. This is our goal in Fianna Fáil - to make sure everyone can get the healthcare they need when they need it. If you need a doctor, nurse or therapist. If you need a simple procedure or a complex operation. If you need home care or a nursing home. It can't matter how much money you have, where you live or what age you are.

Thanks to four strong years of investment and reform with Fianna Fáil in government we are now well on our way to making healthcare for everyone a reality.

Waiting lists are falling.

Waiting times are falling.

The number of people on trolleys is falling.

Life expectancy is up.

Survivorship from cancer and other diseases is up.

The number of people getting great care every day is up.

I want to thank our healthcare workers. Every day they hear about the challenges. They tell me how demoralising it is to hear so much focus on what's not working and so little on what is. They know how hard it can be for patients and families. They know we have a long way to go. They also know things are getting better for more and more people. We all know we have some of the best trained most dedicated healthcare workers anywhere. And I want to take this opportunity, on behalf of Fianna Fáil, to say to all healthcare workers in Ireland - we see your hard work, we appreciate all you do and we thank you.

This is the third year in a row waiting lists will fall. In Wicklow, Kildare and south Dublin, people were waiting 6 years to have cataracts removed. They're now waiting less than 12 months and falling. In Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, people sent by their GP to see a urologist were waiting two years. They're now waiting five weeks. in Sligo, women sent by their GP to see a gynaecologist were having to wait for four years. They're now waiting four weeks.

In emergency departments this year, thousands more people are coming to ED, but thousands less have been on a trolley. Some hospitals - Kilkenny, Tullamore, Mullingar, Portiuncula - have more than halved their trolley numbers this year.

We've cut the amount of money families need to spend on healthcare. We've abolished hospital charges, introduced free contraception, reduced monthly medicines bills, rolled out free IVF and made free GP care available to another half a million people including all children under 8.

Our healthcare workers are delivering a revolution in women's healthcare. We've opened new menopause services, fertility hubs, endometriosis services and same day gynaecology services. We have expanded services in breastfeeding, fertility, mental health and screening.

Next week we're launching Ireland's second Women's Health Action Plan. One of the measures will be to extend free contraception to the age of 35 - the next step in making it available free to all women.

We have passed a new Organ Donation Actl, making us all organ donors by default, with the ability to opt out, rather than the need to opt it. We are so proud to support and grow our palliative care services, providing expert care, dignity and compassion to so many in their greatest time of need.

Minister Mary Butler deserves huge credit for her leadership on mental health services and older persons services including for those living with dementia.

I am determined that this government will take further actions to protect children from the damage from certain smart phone and social media use. It is not okay to target children with content glorifying self harm, or suicide, or eating disorders, or violence against women. Children and their parents must be supported. Companies must be tightly regulated and must be held to account.

We have taken firm action on vaping, making it illegal to sell vapes to anyone under 18. We're now looking at controls on colours, flavours and banning disposable vapes.

Twenty years ago then Health Minister Micheál Martin introduced the workplace smoking ban. It has saved many, many lives. I am proposing a new measure to increase the age at which cigarettes can be bought from 18 to 21. This change has the potential to save many more lives.

We have opened a record number of extra hospital beds and primary care centres. We've hired a huge number of extra healthcare workers. For every GP now retiring, two new GPs are now entering practice.

We're making it easier for people to get the care they need in their own communities, rather than having to go to hospital. To do this, we've built a new community health service with thousands of healthcare workers.

Last year we launched the Public-Only Consultant Contract. This is a fundamental reform in hospital care. It means more patients treated by consultants, patients being treated quicker and getting out of hospital quicker and public hospitals being used to treat public patients. Just one year since the launch of the contract, half the consultant workforce has already signed up.

This investment and reform is working. Take children referred to see an eye specialist. Before now, in many counties including Galway, Wicklow and Dublin, children were having to wait 2 to 3 years. They're now being seen in around 6 weeks.

Things are getting better, but there is still much to be done. Waiting lists are still far too high. When it comes to children waiting for spinal surgery I have set up a new taskforce, with surgeons and patients at the centre. I have provided new funding again this year with the ultimate goal of every child being treated within four months.

Trolley numbers are still far too high. We're adding more beds, more options for patients and better ways of working. We're targeting the hospitals making up the majority of patients on trolleys.

It is a generation since Fianna Fáil delivered the Good Friday Agreement. It is two generations since Donagh O'Malley announced free secondary education. Each was a transformative change. We are here again to deliver change, to make good on our republican values. We will work day-in and day-out to make things better for patients, better for their families and better for our healthcare workers.

In the upcoming elections, we will ask the people to back the progress being made, to back the vision of everyone in Ireland getting the care they need when they need it, to back Fianna Fáil.

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