Ireland

McManus calls for equality of access to health service

The Labour Party's spokesperson on health, Ms Liz McManus, has told the party's annual conference that party has the "clear political…

Sat Apr 01 2006 - 01:00

The Labour Party's spokesperson on health, Ms Liz McManus, has told the party's annual conference that party has the "clear political leadership" to provide a programme of emergency measures required to address the crisis in A&E.

Earlier, the Party's President, Mr Michael D Higgins, told the conference that Labour Party values would have to underpin any future coalition government.
Mr Higgins said that any new government of which the Labour Party is a part "will have to address the profound alienation of many from their lives and society. It will have to implement a strategy for inclusion and reconnection."
Ms McManus outlined the party's policy on health to a workshop at the conference venue. The said the Labour Party believed in the integration of Ireland's health services "where patients will be treated equally regardless of who they are or what means they have at their disposal."
"Equality of access to hospital care is only one of the changes that needs to be made. We need to have a fundamental shift away from hospital care and into primary care," she said.
"The build-up of community care services in a coherent way with general practice having a central role is essential."
"We need improved modern management and accountability. So far neither has been the hallmark of a government better known for squandering resources than for spending them wisely," she added.

"Indeed we have a Minister who is zealous only in her pursuit of privatisation. Her ideology is clear, and her tenure as Minister for Health has been characterised by it. We oppose her agenda of privatisation. We want to see health put before profit. We are setting out a better way.

"Not only does Labour have the energy to do things better, but we have the political will and the vision to do things better," she concluded.

Earlier, the President of the Labour Party, Michael D Higgins, told the conference that Labour Party values would have to underpin any future coalition government.

READ MORE

Mr Higgins said that politics in Ireland had been "severely damaged" over the last decade and that the image of Ireland was one of "a greedy country consumed in its consumption, one where "inequality in society is necessary as a spur to achievement".

He said the very concept of public service was being destroyed and said that those who work "for other than for personal advancement, far from being appreciated for the work they do for citizens in general, are reviled and abused."

Mr Higgins called on the public to reject the extreme individualism of the Right and warned any party with which the Labour Party might co-operate that there are bedrock values upon which Labour would not compromise.

He insisted that there was "an urgent need to restore morale among those who decide to work in the public sphere."

He said the public service had to be recast into a service that provides basic needs and rights that the market would not be likely to supply.

Meanwhile, Labour's Eamon Gilmore told the conference that Labour would provide "notjust an alternative government, but a better government."

He said the current Government had run out of ideas and "has lost with the Irish people" and said that the Labour Party could solve problems in the areas of health, crime, the cost of living and the public services.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte last night called on disaffected Fianna Fáil voters to support his party in the next general election, saying Labour is their "natural home".

In a speech delivered on the eve of his party conference in Dublin, Mr Rabbitte said he had no doubt that his party and Fine Gael will form a government after the next general election and pledged Labour would drive "a progressive centre-left agenda within that coalition".