Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae has denied that he wasted money by submitting 115 parliamentary questions to the Minister for Health one day last week, mostly inquiring about hospital appointments for individuals .
TDs often ask parliamentary questions of Ministers as a means of putting pressure on State bodies to make progress in the cases of their constituents. They have been estimated as costing an average of €200 each.
Mr Healy-Rae told Newstalk Breakfast that he had not come on the radio to apologise “for doing my job”.
“I’m trying to help people,” he said. “I’m trying to highlight shortfalls in our health service. As long as there’s air in my lungs, I’ll continue to fight for people who come to me.”
Mr Healy-Rae said he was particularly focused on highlighting the cases of some of his constituents waiting for treatment for cataracts.
“We’re living in a modern civilised society - people should not be going blind waiting to have operations carried out. But that’s exactly what happened.”
Mr Healy-Rae’s 115 questions, submitted in the last week and answered on the last day of the Dáil term, were almost all inquiring about hospital appointments for individuals. A small number inquired after medical devices, operations and dental appointments.
Most questions received an identical reply, which pointed out that it was illegal for the Minister to direct the HSE “to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual”.
In all cases the questions were referred to the HSE. However, Mr Healy-Rae was advised to contact Minister for Health Simon Harris’s private office if he did not receive a reply within 15 working days and his “officials will follow the matter up”.
"This is me doing my job," Mr Healy-Rae told The Irish Times. He said that probably no politician in Ireland received as many requests to help on medical matters as he did, and that he received pleas for help from all over Ireland. "I don't say no," he said.
“I have people in Kerry going blind waiting for a cataract operation,” Mr Healy-Rae said. “There is a four- or five-week gap and if they don’t get an operation, they’ll go blind.”
Asked why he submitted so many questions on the last day of the Dáil, he said there was “an awful surge last week”. He and three of his staff were in his office until 3am last Tuesday processing the requests for help, he said.
Does it do any good?
“It does, it does,” he said. However, Mr Healy-Rae denied his representations facilitated people in moving up waiting lists. “It highlights their cases.”
