Harris and Sinn Féin clash over healthcare as end comes to niceties

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald: she said there was chronic overcrowding in hospitals, with 600 patients waiting on trolleys on Tuesday and 520 on Wednesday. Photograph: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos

But Mr Harris said services were improving and more staff would be recruited. On his second day of Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil as Taoiseach, any niceties between the two have ended, with sharp exchanges on cancer care. He accused Ms McDonald of being “a little disingenuous” in her presentation of the figures, and said the HSE had asked people not to compare cancellation figures from one year to the next, from 2022 to 2023, as they were not comparable.

“A cancer diagnosis for a child must be utterly devastating for a family, and the instinct of any parent in that situation is to go to the ends of the earth to care for their child.” She said parents hope the system has got their backs. “So just imagine the cancellation of a child’s chemotherapy appointment.”

Mr Harris said he wanted parents to know “that we will continue to invest more in the services to make sure that their child has the best outcome”. He said Ms McDonald talked about a recruitment embargo yet he had to point out that 2,200 more healthcare staff would be appointed this year and that 28,000 more were working in the health service since the 2020 general election.

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