Listening to the spirited defence of the Government by the Tnaiste who berated Opposition Members for having the cheek to talk about confidence in the Government, one would think that not any member of the Fianna Fil Party had uttered a word in recent weeks. Much of what is being said about the Government came from Fianna Fil backbenchers and most people were grateful for that. Certainly the polls indicate that their view was not too far off the mark.
Our decision to oppose this motion of confidence is a positive assertion of the disapproval of the ordinary people of the actions of this discredited Government. The people have watched with amazement the unfolding of scandals which have tainted this Government. The Government cannot now be said to deserve the confidence of the people. To date the Government have mismanaged the country's finances and have been [558] embroiled in scandals which have bedevilled the political system here in recent weeks. They have failed also to provide the leadership the people deserve. This Fianna Fil-Progressive Democrats Coalition Government for however long they will last, promised the people this economic miracle, but the only people who seem to have benefited from this alleged miracle are the close friends and associates of the Government. Political nepotism appears to be one of their core values. Individual Ministers and indeed the Taoiseach himself still face serious questions concerning their roles in the various scandals which have been uncovered. I hope the answers to some of those questions will unfold during this debate over the next few days. It needs to be said that this debate is a charade, a ritualistic debate and vote, but confidence in the Dil in political life and the system we adhere to is urgently required. That is a mission in which the Members of this House and the people we represent have a common stake. By their actions this Government have proved to be blatantly unequal in their treatment of the Irish people, favouring the old boys network and in the process the vast majority of ordinary people are forgotten. Unemployment has increased, health care has suffered in spite of our warnings and free education is merely an illusion of yesterday.
The people the Labour Party represent are struggling to survive in the unequal Ireland of the nineties. The electorate have delivered their warning, a warning that is reflected not only in the latest opinion polls, but in the local elections and the presidential election. The Labour Party unequivocally adhere to the fundamental belief that health care in particular is a basic human right, so basic a right that there is an explicit obligation on the community to discriminate positively in favour of the poor and those in need. However, this Government's policy has been to discriminate against the less well off in our community making it increasingly difficult for people on low incomes to secure any access, let alone equality of access.
[559] Having listened to the Minister for Health today, it is clear that we will never be able to describe health care as a basic human right. He referred to the Fox report, the Kennedy report and the legislation enacted in 1990, including the Nursing Homes Bill which cannot be brought into operation because he has not signed the ministerial order as my colleague has just said, he has no money. In other words, because he has not signed the order, health boards are not in a position to pay subsistence to old people who need accommodation in nursing homes which cannot be provided by the State. Is this what society expects our senior citizens to suffer under this Minister for Health and the Government in whom we are asked to have confidence?
The Minister went on to outline various changes he had made in schemes, including the drug refund scheme - another three card trick. Under this scheme a person who spent in excess of 32 on drugs in any one month received a refund, but as a result of the unequal system he introduced on 1 July, people who spend 90 in the final week of a quarter or in the first week of the following quarter, will receive no refund. That is some trick and people will suffer. Those changes were introduced as a cost cutting exercise. The effects of other health cuts are visible all around us. The Minister said the same level of service will be maintained in 1991 as obtained throughout 1990, but we know that this is not the case. The health boards at the end of July - and I have documentation to prove this - were millions of pounds in the red because of this Minister's failure to structure health funding. The Minister promised the health boards that he would recoup their costs in demand led schemes, which he has not done, and today he intimated that he may refund only 50 per cent of the [560] costs which would increase their deficit of almost 20 million even further.
Mental handicap services are in a crisis. It is a scandal that the parents of children with mental handicap had to picket in cold and wind in O'Connell Street yesterday while today others picketed this House because they do not have a hospital in County Clare. Last night in Tallaght hundreds of people, in the presence of Deputies Harney and Flood, both Ministers of State, complained that this Government have reneged on their promise to build a hospital in Tallaght, despite the fact that 9 million has been spent since a former Minister for Health, the then Deputy Desmond, left office. What we have been left with is a 9 million hole in the ground in Tallaght and 150,000 people are without a hospital service. One cannot have confidence in a Government who continue in that vein.
Why should we not bring these discrepancies to the attention of the public?
We know in our hearts that everything that has been uttered by Ministers in this debate so far cannot be proved to be correct. All the documentation coming off the Government production machine seems to imply that things have happened, but nothing we have heard today from Ministers on their performance in their Departments could lead us to have confidence in them.
It is my contention that this Government have presided over the destruction of the health services. The concept of a comprehensive health service, free at the point of access, is a decision of principle. No final decision can be made by any Government or any Dil about the allocation of funding for health services unless it is agreed in advance that access to the health services is a basic human right. It is clear that this Government do not accept that principle. It is for that reason alone that I, on behalf of the Labour Party, cannot support this motion of confidence in the Government and I am quite sure that no member of the Labour Party could concede that there is any confidence in this Fianna Fil-Progressive Democrats Coalition Government.

