Brian Stanley
Laois · Independent · Ireland
“We are going through an epidemic of domestic abuse and violence. In 2025, the Garda had over 67,000 calls in relation to domestic abuse. Seven women were murdered last year, and in many of those cases, it was by a family member, a partner or somebody known closely to the victim.”
“Those fundamentals cannot be ignored. Are supporters of partition really saying that we can continue on this small island with 14 different departments in each jurisdiction working back to back, often in competition with each other? Are they saying that having Twenty-six Counties in the EU and Six Counties out of it makes economic sense?”
“Those who still argue for partition ignore the fact that in a reunified 32-county state, the pension liabilities of those workers in the Six Counties who accrued pension entitlements by paying into the British national insurance system and the British exchequer or employment pensions would receive that portion of their pension liability.”
“Unfortunately, I do not get any sense of urgency from the Minister of State that we are going to have laws introduced in September or October, and that is the crucial issue. Yes, we have rules now, and she listed them out in relation to the signs. However, they are being ignored.”
“The cost is €2.6 billion for the diplomatic mission alone. There is also MI6 and the massive military machine and capacity, including the army, the navy and the Royal Air Force. I saw a figure of €60.2 billion for 2025 and 2026. That amount is due to rise sharply to meet its increased military capabilities.”
“The issue I am raising with the Minister of State is the increase in the number of injuries, including those involving young children, relating to e-scooters and e-bikes. Ten have been killed.”
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“They need works as well. We have had the ambulance services before the Committee on Public Accounts and we have had reports from them. I do not care what the senior staff in the ambulance services say about dynamic deployment. There are ambulances chasing from Portlaoise to Waterford or to Wexford. When they are within a mile or a couple of miles of where the accident or the patient is, they get a call telling them to turn back as another ambulance got there before them. Meanwhile, back in Laois, somebody is after having a heart attack and there is nobody to pick them up. Whether we like it or not - and I know there are no easy solutions to this and that nothing is perfect - we have to get to a system. The optimum is to keep the ambulances within a 45 km or 50 km area. By all means, ambulances should be able to cross county boundaries.”
“I ask her to do what she can about primary care centres and health centres because we all know that if we catch people, and if we are able to help people in the community and provide services at community level, it keeps them out of expensive hospital care. In particular, I ask the Minister about the primary care centre for Portlaoise. It is promised and it is agreed that it will happen, and everybody is on board with it. It needs the cash - the capital allocation. Portlaoise town now has a population in the region of 30,000. There is a huge catchment area around it. It is probably the only town of its size in the country that does not have a primary care centre. Some of the smaller health centres - in Mountrath, Borris-in-Ossory, Rathdowney and Graiguecullen - need some upgrading as well, and I ask that they not be forgotten about.”
“It is a lot of money spent on services, recruitment agencies, etc. That €276 million was only for 11 months of last year. The HSE's records showed that this finance was spent on services such as administration, management, nursing, medical, dental, and paramedical services and supports, as well as maintenance and technical supports. In the Midland Regional Hospital, in Portlaoise, a relatively small but very busy hospital, almost €20 million was spent in 11 months last year. Some €19.7 million was spent there on agency staff in 11 months of last year. As I understand it, that spend has never been higher. The Minister will be doing the capital development plan. She will be swotting around the Cabinet table over the next week with this. I know there are hard decisions to be made. The cake has to be divided up.”
“There is over a two-year waiting list and there are some awful examples of young people and adults in desperate need of dental care on long waiting lists and going nowhere. I have had family members come to me about this and it is terrible. They cannot be treated. Some of them are suffering with toothache and some are suffering with oral dental health problems. That will all cause further health problems down the line. I ask the Minister to really take that on board because they are a very vulnerable group. The issue of agency staff is in some ways an old chestnut but it is one we have to deal with. When he took over, Bernard Gloster said he was committed to trying to pare that back, and I know that is easier said than done, but the over-reliance on agency staff is concerning, with €276 million spent in 2024.”
“It is clear that we are not achieving what we need to achieve in terms of the schemes. It is clear that the dental treatment services scheme, DTSS, for medical card patients is non-existent in many parts of the country, including in County Laois, where no dentist is taking patients under it, except one on the edge of Carlow town. The dental treatment benefit scheme is also very limited. Up to 2009, a range of services were provided under it but now it is just cleaning and examination. I suggested that we should examine a voucher system for that, which is in operation in other countries, to give a better service for workers paying PRSI, USC and PAYE. I will say what I said this morning just to bring it home to the Minister. There is a particular problem with children and adults with special needs who need treatment under anaesthetic.”
“We need to really give attention to this. The lack of transparency in outcomes and delivery damages the reputation of the healthcare system and can cause long-term financial problems. It restricts the public information. We must have full transparency to see how hospitals and services are performing and to get a better insight into waiting lists. Without that, public trust will be eroded. I know the Minister was unavoidably absent this morning - the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, was here in her absence - but I hope she gets a chance to read some of what I said, and indeed other contributions that were made because they were made sincerely. I raised the issue of dental care and, in particular, the public dental schemes. There is €230 million going into that per year.”
“I know that the numbers on the public-only contract are increasing. That needs to continue and to accelerate. Again, that is nothing against people who want to work in private healthcare - that is fine and dandy - but we have to disentangle the two systems. This is a clear example of the public system and public facilities being exploited in terms of their use for private profit. I refer to the lack of transparency in outcomes and delivery. The Minister was a member of the public accounts committee when I was the Chairperson of it and she was fairly good at drilling into things - I will give her that - as regards disabilities and so on. She focused on that a lot, as well as on health services, and she made a good contribution there, as did many of the members, but I remember her focusing in particular on these issues.”
“I do not have any particular grá for privatised health services but if a private hospital wants to operate and people want to pay for it privately, it is grand. However, we must disentangle that from the public system, which we were supposed to be doing with Sláintecare. It was clear that what those surgeons were doing was exploiting public facilities and scarce taxpayers' money that needs to be going to front-line services. We must move away from that. I welcome the fact that the Department and the chief executive of the HSE, Mr. Bernard Gloster, has managed to get weekend work operational in hospitals. They must work seven days a week. There is expensive equipment. We do not have enough equipment and we have a growing population. I get all that. For now, we need people to work at weekends. I welcome the fact it is happening.”
“However, we must keep an eye on the services and the budget provided for them. A situation was highlighted recently in respect of clinical insourcing. On many occasions we have complained about outsourcing, but I am talking about insourcing. It was interesting when that report came out. Surgeons were taking patients who came to them during the week out of the public system and doing private work through a private company they had established so they could do the work at weekends and receive a different price for it. That became a cash cow for those individuals and companies. The bewildering thing about it was that the hospital's own facilities were being used. If it were a private facility, that would be fair enough. If a private hospital wants to operate, let it operate. That is grand.”
“In December 2019, 18,851 staff members were listed in the management and administration category. In March 2024, that number had increased to 25,477, which represented a substantial increase of 35%. When we track it, we can see that the numbers employed in those grades are increasing at a faster rate than the numbers of clinical, care and front-line staff. That is a big issue I have with the HSE. I am not saying that all managers are bad or anything like that. I know managers in the HSE who are doing their best. What I am saying is that it has become very bureaucratic. There are several layers. I understand there has been a big ship to steer. Health systems are complicated and the HSE is a big organisation with 120,000 workers. It can be hard to manage. I understand that.”
“The performance delivery plan will be due within 28 days of the receipt of the determination of the maximum net non-capital expenditure that can be incurred. That is all good. Importantly, the CEO will be required to inform the board, the Ministers for Health and Children, Disability and Equality if the HSE is likely to exceed the capital and non-capital budget allocation for any particular year. That is all fine. As I stated previously to the Minister, there is a substantial budget going in and I have no argument with that. Coming from a left republican position, I welcome that. The more we can put in the better. Outcomes are the whole thing. The following is the hard bit. The most recent health sector employment report was published by the HSE in March.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I will do the easy bit first. I have gone through the Bill and welcome a lot of what is in it. It is welcome that the service plan will be replaced with a performance delivery plan. It is welcome that we will be able to measure things. The Minister for Health is to prepare a strategic direction statement in respect of health service priorities to guide the HSE in preparation of its corporate plan. That is welcome. The Minister for Children, Disability and Equality is to prepare a similar strategic direction plan in respect of community-based disability services. That is laudable. The Minister for Health will also prepare an annual statement of the health services' priorities. That is very important. The Minister for Children, Disability and Equality will undertake a similar task.”
“I know the Government is not opposing the motion and I welcome that, but let us not just go out of here this morning and nothing then happens. Let us use some of the suggestions put this morning. They are being put forward genuinely from Kerry to Donegal and Galway to Dublin. I am telling the Minister of State that the situation is really serious in Laois. It needs a fix and I plead with the Minister of State to fix this issue.”
“There is also still something wrong with recruitment for the DTSS. I acknowledge the 40% increase in payments, but the scheme is not being taken up. There needs to be a dynamic advertisement and recruitment campaign for the DTSS. The services under the treatment benefit scheme need to be expanded. The voucher system also needs to be looked at as one option. I do not know all the ins and outs of it, but it certainly should be considered. For those people with special needs, I plead with the Minister of State, because I have come across some terrible cases where people have had to have treatment under anaesthetic because they are autistic or have some other condition. That needs to be fixed in the hospitals providing those services. I have seen awful situations. I welcome this opportunity.”
“I outlined the new dental plan, the timeline for which the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, referred to when she spoke earlier. That needs to happen a lot quicker. We also need that scheme for the under-sevens. The Minister of State knows what needs to be done in the dental schools in TCD and UCC in terms of additional funding. The structured mentorship programme and its different forms have been spoken about. It needs to be brought on stream so that people can gain work experience. On HSE recruitment, I think it was Deputy Sherlock who mentioned a 14-month wait for one person between being told that person would be taken on and actually starting the job. People will go elsewhere. They are not going to hang around. They cannot hang around because they have to bring in money to live in an expensive economy and country.”
“I have nothing against foreigners. They are welcome, particularly those who are working in our public health system, but governments of other countries are paying them to come here to train. The funding from that is supporting the dental schools. This is something I have put a lot of work into looking at over the years. In the past few months, I have decided to give this a particular focus while I am in the Dáil representing Laois during this term. We cannot have a situation where the dental schools are depending on foreign students. The spaces are taken up. We are not educating and training enough dentists to work in either the public or private systems here. We need to get on top of this. As has already been outlined, dental care is not a luxury. We need a fix.”
“I welcome that fact and I recognise the efforts of those people working late in the evening to try to do that, shorten the list and get on top of this. The letter writer goes on to say: There are very few dentists qualifying in Ireland as college spaces are limited and non-Irish Nationals tend to go back [to their home countries] once qualified. Maybe you could speak on the dental hospitals in Dublin and Cork and maybe they could come up with a scheme that once you qualified you have to practice in Ireland for a year [or, as some Deputies have mentioned, two years]. I know two years ago 43 dentists qualified in Dublin and only 10 stayed in the Country. I will finish there and will not read the rest of it. That to me brings home the problem we are facing. The overall dependence on foreign students has been mentioned.”
“I mentioned the six-year waiting list for orthodontic services. Nothing happens during school term in primary. Nothing happens during secondary. They then come out the other end and it is all over at that stage. The opportunity is gone, and that is really disappointing. I will read a short letter, which is one of many letters I get. This came from somebody working in the public dental services who wanted to outline to me some staffing issues: There have been jobs advertised and no dentists have applied. There are currently two full time dentists covering all of Laois. They are currently doing late evenings or try get through the list. I acknowledge here the efforts of one particular HSE manager, Joe Ruane, in getting that in place. I want to acknowledge that because there are people trying to change things.”
“Women, because of the reality of the world we live in, need to work a 35- or 40-hour week while also having other responsibilities trying to manage their families and everything like that. They want to work a nine-to-five job, and a lot of men do, too. Men are now taking on a greater role in parenting children. We must try to get more people into the public system and the private system. The shortcomings and the limited number of services available under the dental treatment benefit scheme have been outlined very graphically. Portugal, as I understand it, has a voucher scheme. I do not want to make this look cheap, but the voucher scheme would allow people to access the services they or their dental surgeons consider they need under the dental treatment benefit scheme. It is something the Minister of State may consider.”
“Some 65% of dentists have been unable to recruit additional people. There has been no progress on the new dental school at UCC since the then Minister, Simon Harris, turned the sod in 2019. My understanding is the funding is being withdrawn. Only 10% of dentists work in the public dental health services. Even private dentists are saying that figure needs to be doubled. We need to double the percentage to have a representative number in the public dental system. It is like the GP situation. Not all dentists can afford to open a private practice or want to open a private practice because they would have to run a small business and there are a lot of costs associated with that.”
“I watched my granddaughter go through primary school. As far as I can remember, I saw the dentist in third class – it is a few years ago now – in the dispensary in Mountrath. Everybody else also saw the dentist at that time. Here we are now, and she did not see the dentist in primary school. She came out of primary school. She and her pals - I know the kids she was going around with at the time - are now near the end of their teens. They went through secondary school and almost came out the other end without seeing the dentist. They saw the dentist in the past year. That was their first examination. It brought it all into sharp focus for me. Under section 67 of the Health Act 1970, the HSE must provide dental treatment and appliances for those on medical cards. We must increase the number of places.”
“That is the case, but we cannot have budgets without tracking the outcomes. Outcomes have to match any increase in budget. That needs to be clear and I am saying that as an Opposition TD. Throwing money at something will not solve it on its own. People going abroad has been mentioned. There is even a term now I heard recently, namely, “Turkey teeth”. We have seen good and bad examples of people coming back with treatment. However, if they are going there, it is a failure. What brought this to my attention a number of years ago, and I have raised it since joining the House – it is my 15th year here – is that an acquaintance of mine wound up nearly dying in hospital because of poor dental health. Poison got into his system. He was a fine hardy fellow and it almost killed him. It really underlined the problem for me. I raise another issue.”
“The problems and some suggestions have been outlined, and that is welcome. I welcome the fact the Minister of State is not opposing it. I know he and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, are sincere in what they are doing. In his closing remarks, he framed it in the context of Sláintecare, and we have to set it in that context. That means we must start providing the proper dental health services that are available to everybody. It is like many other problems, including housing. There is no one thing that will fix any of it. There are a number of parts, and a number of them are being focused in on, in fairness, and were identified by Deputies. I also tried to do it in the motion and in the proposals I tabled. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, mentioned the overall budget of €230 million.”
“I join with the Leas-Cheann Comhairle in welcoming the visitors to the Gallery. I welcome Fintan Hourihan from the Irish Dental Association, as well as Pat Fitzpatrick. As a councillor, I met Pat Fitzpatrick a few times in his former role. We are all elected here to be the voice of the people - Teachtaí Dála, Dáil delegates. Not to take any cheap shot, but the Government benches have been empty throughout this debate. Not one member of Government, apart from the Ministers of State, spoke. Maybe they do not see there is any problem in dental health, but I find that remarkable. Maybe they are not hearing it from constituents. We have had a range of speakers from across the Opposition benches, from Kerry to Donegal, from Dublin across to Galway, and everywhere else in between.”
“I see lobbyists going in and out of here every day. They are coming to us, as Opposition Deputies, as well. This is not just about oral health. Oral health affects all health. The Government needs to provide a significant increase in funding. The one message I want to leave with the Minister of State, having chaired the Committee of Public Accounts for four and a half years, is that we need clear tracking of the budget going into dental services. If we just throw money at it, we will not get the outcomes we want. There needs to be clear tracking of the budget going in and the outcomes and services being provided, and that needs to correspond to increases in the budget.”
“We need to expand the range of services available under the treatment benefit scheme. Workers are working hard and paying their taxes - PAYE, USC and PRSI - which are gone out of their wages before they get them. They do not mind paying their taxes but they need to see services for that money. If people could see good services, they would not mind paying their taxes and levies. We need to ensure that the HSE improves and expands hospital services and capacity for those children and adults with special needs who require treatment. I have outlined the numbers waiting in just one area, and that needs to be tackled. There is a particular need there because such patients have to be under anaesthetic before they can be treated. We are coming up to budget time. The Government is being lobbied left, right and centre.”
“Officials need to take this on board and take it up with the HSE directly because what is happening is that in the interim, those recruited either emigrate or get another job. That means that we do not have them in the public system where they are needed. We need to introduce a very dynamic advertising and recruitment campaign for the dental treatment services scheme. Extra funding was provided for that. The rates being paid have been increased, but we need to encourage more dental practices to take on medical card patients in all parts of the State. I have been highlighting this issue since former Deputies Varadkar and James Reilly served as Ministers for Health. It needs to be sorted out. The situation across the country is bad, but there is a really big hole in the service in Laois and Offaly is not much better.”
“There must also be a significant increase in the number of dental school places in universities, particularly UCC and TCD, and additional funding for this. We need to facilitate the reintroduction of a structured mentorship programme to allow new graduates to gain work experience. I am sure the Minister of State understands the importance of that. We need to authorise the HSE to step up recruitment for dentists to work in the school dental scheme and public dental services. We need to sort out the delay between the point at which dentists are recruited and told they have a position and when they start work. The information I have, if it is correct, is that such delays can be for six months or more, which is too long.”
“We all know how important it is that dental health is tackled early, namely when children are in second class in primary school. We also need to bring forward the promised scheme for children under seven. The €800 million cut in funding for those two public schemes over a 14-year period has had a significant effect. I urge the Government to publish the long-promised new plan for dental services. I acknowledge that a new dental school was opened in Sandymount last week. The Minister for Health told me about it the other day. While I acknowledge that development, more needs to be done. We need to bring forward a plan for our dental health services, and a scheme for children under seven must be given priority.”
“In the context of private practice, the Irish Dental Association has found that due to workload, one quarter of dental practices are not taking on new adult clients and more than one third will not take on new children. This is not because they do not want to do so; they cannot do it due to their workload. While the effects of this are felt across society, low- and middle-income households are hit the hardest. Between 2009 and 2023, there was a cut of €800 million in funding for the PRSI scheme and the treatment benefit scheme, or medical card scheme, to which I referred earlier. This has meant that workers on low and middle incomes have suffered hugely negative outcomes. Unfortunately, dental health and dental treatment are often put on the back burner by families out of economic necessity.”
“Given the rising population and the high number of dentists who will reach retirement in the coming years, this needs a particular focus on the part of and action from Government. To underline the scale of the crisis, the overall number of dentists working in both public and private practice has dropped by 23% in the past 15 years. Less than 10% of dentists are working in the public service. It is estimated that 120 additional dentists are needed just to maintain the very basic level of service we have at present. In 2023, 320 dentists were working in the public service. By 2025, according to the HSE, that had dropped to 294.”
“Overall, 83% of dental treatment is funded by means of out-of-pocket payments. Children with special needs and adults who require anaesthesia to access treatment suffer from a lack of services. There is a two-year waiting list in hospitals for such treatment. I have had representations at my constituency office about this. Patients often present with serious levels of tooth decay and oral health issues. That needs to be fixed. In the Dublin and midlands health region, there are 654 children and 102 adults on waiting lists for hospital treatment. That matter requires urgent attention. The Irish Dental Association has highlighted the fact that 500 additional dentists are needed immediately to address the crisis in private practice and the public system.”
“The dental treatment services scheme for adults on medical cards is not available in many areas. For example, for people in Laois, only one dental practice currently takes clients under the scheme and it is based on the edge of Carlow town. The budget for the current scheme is €73 million this year. That is a reduction of €6 million on the allocation in 2010. There has been a reduction of almost 50% in the number of dental practices taking clients under the scheme. The HSE's emergency dental health service is almost impossible to access. The treatment benefit scheme for workers and retired workers, which is based on PRSI, only provides for examinations and cleaning. This puts low- and middle-income families at a disadvantage. I refer here to ordinary workers and their families who get no fillings or extractions under the scheme.”
“In many cases, they receive their first examination well into secondary school. In Laois, children are four years into secondary school when they are first seen. In Offaly, it is not much better, at three years. This is an absolute scandal in public health. In the case of Laois, according to HSE figures, 6,433 pupils are waiting on their first examination. As I said, for most of those pupils this will come six or seven years too late, and they will then have to wait for treatment. In 2017, 135,662 pupils were screened and treated. This figure dropped to 101,112 in 2023. We are going backwards. I am not too sure what happened but these are figures I got from the HSE. In Laois, the number of pupils screened and treated reduced from 4,300 in 2017 to 181 in 2023. Those are interesting figures.”
“Action on this by successive Governments and the HSE has been way too slow and at nowhere near the pace required to have a substantial impact. In recent years, insufficient attention and resources have been put in to prevention through education and public awareness campaigns. The cure comes too late, often and most likely in the form of multiple extractions and fillings. I want to address the main public schemes, namely, the school dental scheme, the dental treatment services scheme, the treatment benefit scheme and orthodontics, for which there is a six-year waiting list for treatment. The school dental scheme is not providing timely and adequate treatment for primary and secondary school pupils. Children are not being seen for their first examination in second, fourth and sixth class, as they should be.”
“The public dental health service is in crisis and there is also a shortage of dentists in the private sector. This is due to a lack of planning and the schemes not properly being resourced. Dental and oral health have not been made the priority they need to be. For a relatively wealthy First World country, we have a Third World dental health system. Untreated tooth decay is one of the most common health conditions, according to the Global Burden of Disease Report 2019. Conditions such as stomach ulcers, gum disease, heart conditions and a range of other physical health issues are caused by poor oral health. The workforce crisis in dentistry has been well publicised in recent years. This has not happened all of a sudden; it has crept up over several years.”
“Laois for example just one dental practice currently takes clients under this scheme; — the budget for the scheme in the current year is €73 million, a reduction of €6 million from 2010; — the HSE emergency dental service is almost impossible to access; — the Treatment Benefit Scheme based on Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI), only provides for examination and polishing which puts lower- and middle-income families at a disadvantage; and — children or people with special needs, that require anaesthesia cannot access treatment due to a lack of staff in hospitals, and there is a two-year waiting list; and calls on the Government to: — publish the promised dental services plan; — provide for a significant increase in Dental School places in University College Cork and Trinity College Dublin, and provide additional funding for this; — facilitate the re-introduction of a structured mentorship programme to allow new graduates to gain work experience; — authorise the HSE to step up recruitment for dentists to work in the School dental programme, and in public dental services; — introduce a dynamic advertising and recruitment campaign for the DTSS, to encourage dental practices to take medical card patients in all parts of the State; — expand the range of services available under the PRSI based Treatment Benefit Scheme; — ensure the HSE improve and expand hospital services and capacity for children and adults who have special needs, and require treatment under general anaesthetic; and — provide for a significant increase in the forthcoming budget for dental services.”
“I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — the School dental programme for children is not providing adequate and timely treatment for primary and secondary school students; — children are not seen for their first screening examination in second, or even fourth or sixth class in primary schools and in many areas, they are receiving their first examination in fourth year in secondary school; — in Co. Laois, based on Health Service Executive (HSE) figures of 6,433 are waiting on their first exam invitation, and that is being provided seven years late; — in 2017, 135,662 pupils were screened and treated, and this dropped to 101,112 in 2023, and in the same period in Co. Laois and Co. Offaly it reduced from 4,300 to 181; — the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS) for adults with medical cards is not available in many areas, in Co.”
“This is often overlooked, particularly for those women who are working and who for many reasons have to take time off or who struggle with mental health during that period. It can be a very emotional time for them and we need to do better for them. I acknowledge and welcome the roll-out of free HRT. I raised the issue with the Minister and her predecessors on a number of occasions. I acknowledge that the Government has introduced it. It is very welcome, particularly for low- and middle-income families and women who might not be able to access it otherwise. We need a step change and improvements with regard to endometriosis. There is a clear action plan and I urge the Minister and Government to get behind this, so women do not have to go to Romania or anywhere else for treatment.”
“The motion is calling on the Government to establish a state-of-the-art centre of excellence for endometriosis care, to establish specialised imaging protocols to assist gynaecologists in identifying, mapping and getting the information on endometriosis; to develop and fund a dedicated training and incentive programme; and to launch a nationwide public health campaign to raise awareness. Doctors and specialists need to start believing women when they present with this condition because of its chronic nature and the sheer number of women who endure it throughout their lives. We are talking about women's health and we cannot forget about those women who suffer due to the menopause, which can be an extreme condition for some women.”
“Women often feel they are dismissed when they suffer this disease due to not being able to go to work or social events or just participate in normal family life. This is very distressing for them and some of them have described that to me. The situation regarding fertility creates a problem. We have fertility clinics but waiting times for these clinics and costs are factors. While very welcome changes were brought in in September 2023, not all couples are able to access IVF due to age, weight issues or other circumstances and this needs to be re-examined.”
“While there is no known cure, many women who get proper treatment go on to live a good life when the condition is managed properly and they get the proper care. Women with this condition have been failed for years in Ireland. I know the Minister mentioned the five hubs but the level of expertise, staffing and timely access are issues. Nine, eight or five years is not good enough. This needs to be done in a matter of months so that women can have treatment once it is properly diagnosed. We have to shorten the time from diagnosis to treatment because nine years is appalling. We need more surgeons in the area. Only 25 out of 50 posts have been filled. Recruitment and retention of surgeons and clinical nurses in the field has to be stepped up and has to be stepped up at pace.”
“We have to try to bring forward proper, expert treatment for this debilitating condition. Endometriosis can cause infertility. For women and couples trying to have a child, this presents a terrible problem and the woman, unfortunately and wrongly, will often feel under pressure and blame herself because of the condition. Many gynaecologists strive to improve services but there are issues around resourcing. There is also an issue around theatre time for surgery and specialised treatments. Expert-led surgery is a necessity. We must deal with this area and improve the quality of that service for women. HSE guidelines acknowledge that this is a superior treatment for managing the condition and providing an improved quality of life.”
“It is very stressful and it has been explained to me very clearly how it exacerbates the monthly cycles. It is unbearable, several women have told me. They have described their own situations and that of their daughters to me. It also causes damage to other parts of the body. It is well documented that it does not just affect the womb and pelvic areas, but other parts of the body as well, including the bowel and the kidneys. This is a disease that affects 10% of women in Ireland. Surely if something is affecting 10% of women we have to stand up and take notice. It is unbelievable that the average waiting time is eight to nine years and how this has been let run for so many years. Think of all the women of previous generations who have suffered this silently. As the previous Deputy said, this is 2025. This has to stop.”
“I welcome our guests in the Public Gallery. I have heard similar stories to the testimonies from the last two Deputies, and particularly the testimony Deputy Whitmore read out from a woman who wrote to her. It might not have been as long, but snippets. As a man, constituents have told me similar stories about this problem over the years and particularly in recent years. We have to stop exporting our health issues and people for treatment, particularly women in the case of this chronic condition. Not nearly enough attention has been given to it. Proper resources have not been given for the proper treatment of it. People have said this disease is pain like one could not describe in words that affects women’s bodies. It causes severe pelvic pain, affects fertility and can cause scarring.”
“Will the Tánaiste continue to try to build what I would call a coalition of the willing? Ireland has managed to get some other European countries on board. I ask that he continue that work and, hopefully, other countries in Europe will come on board. We must keep applying as much pressure as possible on Israel to stop the slaughter and the horror show that are Gaza and the West Bank.”
“I thank the Tánaiste. I welcome that support for the International Criminal Court. It is important. The international order is under attack, without a doubt. The Tánaiste's reply has caused me more concern due to the feedback he got last week. It is important Ireland and other countries continue to support the International Criminal Court and not allow the United Nations to be undermined, and indeed for the whole organisation to be reformed and improved. The Government has stood out. We need to continue doing that. I ask it to go further, of course. There is going to have to be negotiations and the release of hostages, both Palestinian prisoner hostages and Israeli hostages. The sooner that happens, and we move to negotiations for a two-state solution, the better.”
“If anybody thinks breeding the resentment that is going to flow from this in the years to come is going to increase Israeli security they are delusional. I ask the Tánaiste to keep pushing that case.”
“I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. I gather from it the International Criminal Court has already included this. I ask that the Tánaiste and his diplomatic staff do everything possible to try to ensure that case is pressed. The horror show in Gaza continues. There is bombing of tents with innocent civilians in them as well as of hospitals and schools. The four Gaza Humanitarian Foundation centres have been turned into shooting galleries where people are herded in and shot for fun. If firing tank shells into crowds of starving people is not a war crime, then God almighty in heaven, what is? That is along with water being turned off and everything else. All this is being done in the name of improving Israeli security.”
“My question is on the International Criminal Court. Has Ireland sought to include the slaughter of starving Palestinians queuing for aid in South Africa's case, which we have joined? I welcomed our joining that case.”