Thomas Pringle TD has today raised concerns on the future of the healthcare system following the resignation of former Minister of State Roisín Shortall.
Speaking on the matter today to Joan Burton at Leaders’ Questions, the Independent TD for Donegal South West stated: “To lose one Junior Minister could be seen as misfortunate but to lose two is certainly careless.
I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Deputy Shortall for taking a courageous decision and standing by her and her party’s policy.”
“She said last night the public has a right to expect that decisions on health infrastructure and staffing will be made in the public interest based on health need and not driven by other concerns. The question that now needs to be asked is where does the Labour Party now stand in this Government?
It is clear that health policy is being led by clientelism and driven into privatisation by this Government, where primary healthcare centres like Ballaghaderreen are prioritised that were not even in the top 200 on the priority list have been approved- delivered through Public Private Partnerships which are licenses to print money.”
“Labour’s manifesto claimed they would reform the unfair two-tier health system to reduce the cost of delivering care, and use those savings to extend universal access to essential medical care, but it seems this promise is dead.
How can another junior Labour Minister ever hope to deliver on reform when they will not even be able to rely on the support of their party leader nor have any powers delegated to them? Our ‘noble’ Minister for Health has certainly shown his level of respect for the former Minister and healthcare reform itself by stating that ‘pressure’s only for tyres’ ”.
“Deputy Shortall has shown that the emperor has no clothes and we now know that this is yet another area that Labour won’t deliver on, another broken promise,” stated Pringle.
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