Labour Health Spokesperson Alan Kelly TD, has called for the chair of the Oireachtas Committee to invite the authors of the “Health Inequalities in Europe” report to address the Oireachtas Health committee and discuss their findings in relation to Ireland.
Commenting today Deputy Kelly said:
“Today’s report highlights, yet again, the nature of the two-tier health service in Ireland. We are an outlier in Europe in that we expect the user to pay for primary care in the majority of cases. Labour wants to delivery a single-tier health care system.
“The Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Health should now invite TASC to come before the committee and report to us on their findings of inequality in the Irish Healthcare system.
“While in government Labour began the process of rolling out universal health care. That rollout has slowed under this Fine Gael/Independent government. Our efforts on this issue have been vindicated by this reports which finds inequality between those who can afford to visit their GP and those who can’t.
“The Sláintecare programme, championed by opposition TDs, is a roadmap to the delivery of universal healthcare. Fine Gael have been backing away from the core proposals of the plan to introduce a single-tier health system in Ireland and a shift towards investment in primary care services.
“While legislation for free GP care for under 12’s has been brought through the Oireachtas, it is yet to be implemented. We need to deliver on this commitment and then shift focus towards the roll-out of universal free access to primary care.”