Fine Gael General Election candidate Cllr Peter Burke has hit out at leader of Fianna Fáil Micheál Martin, saying he is in denial in claiming it would be a mistake to abolish the HSE.
“It’s difficult to believe that Micheál Martin thinks that the HSE is not in need of radical overhaul. In fact over the weekend he claimed that it was the last thing it needed. When is the last time he was in an A&E? Has he seen the number of people on waiting lists? Radical overhaul of the health service is exactly what is required and Fine Gael has a plan to do just that,” says Cllr Burke.
“Has he seen or even heard of the downgrading of our regional hospital here in Mullingar to [the benefit of] his predecessor’s constituency?
“Billions of euros are being spent and services simply haven’t improved. The HSE is awash with bureaucracy, with talented people being frustrated in a dysfunctional system. It is beyond comprehension that Micheál Martin believes that the HSE should continue in its current form.
“It is obvious, especially to the patients whom the system is failing, that a radical overhaul of the way health services are administered in this country is a matter of extreme urgency. Last Friday there were 336 sick people on trolleys waiting for treatment. This simply isn’t good enough.
“Micheál Martin’s HSE has failed the very people it is supposed to be helping and just because he signed it into existence does not mean that he should continue to ignore the reality that the Irish health system is broken and that the HSE has failed to deliver,” he concluded.
