Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has said the Government is better for having Labour in it.
In a major endorsement of the junior Coalition partner, Mr Varadkar has rowed back substantially on his position prior to the 2011 general election when he was one of the strongest advocates of a single-party Fine Gael government.
In his speech to the party's national conference in Castlebar, Co Mayo, Mr Varadkar said Labour: " have helped to give greater prominence to issues of equality, which is important to many of us here, and to society at large. They have brought alternative perspectives to the table on the social impact of economic policies.
"...Others left Fine Gael when decisions had to be made. Labour stuck with it through thick and thin. I am proud to serve with Labour in Government. Ireland is a better place because they are in coalition with Fine Gael."
In the course of his speech, Mr Varadkar predicted the era of cuts in the health services was now nearing an end. In that regard, he announced the recruitment of at least 500 nurses this year as part of a plan to “rebuild our health service”.
He also accepted that hospital waiting lists were unacceptably long at present but defended his record on the issue. “I cannot stand over people waiting for nine hours or longer on trollies. Since December we have done everything that we could to alleviate the situation.”
Mr Varadkar was excoriating of Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams, accusing him, to all intents and purposes, of political hypocrisy.
He told delegates of Adams: “He has houses on both sides of the border, though he pays his property tax and water charges to Her Majesty’s government in the North, but objects to paying in the Republic, so I’m told.
“Yet even though he is resident in both places, he doesn’t use the health service, either North or South. Rather, he flies first class to America for treatment in a private hospital and yet claims to be paid the same as his driver.”
He was also archly critical of Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.
“When he was health minister, trolleys and overcrowding were so bad, that they didn’t even count the patients. We know from newspaper reports that patients were treated in ambulances and carparks one winter,” he said.
“Waiting lists in some instances ran to six years even though he promised to end them altogether within two. His promises were worth nothing then and are worth even less now. And that was a time when resources were plentiful, and we didn’t face the same budget constraints that we do now,” he said.
Mr Varadkar went on to say that in the next election, the Irish people are being offered a choice between “a coalition of extremes, and our own party, which has consistently put Ireland first”.
“In Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin we have two damaged parties: One which undermined this country through sheer incompetence, and another which undermined the country deliberately and by design.
“Neither can be trusted to lead a government, and our job is to make sure they are not.”
