Health minister warns chemotherapy and urgent care at risk if fuel protests continue

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill was speaking during the Irish Medical Organisation annual conference in Killarney. File picture: Grainne Ni Aodha/PA Wire

The health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has raised fears chemotherapy or other urgent care could be affected if “anarchic” fuel protests continue, although she said ambulances have now been refuelled.

Ms Carroll MacNeill was speaking during the Irish Medical Organisation annual conference in Killarney.

“I am pleased to be able to say the ambulances were refuelled overnight,” she told reporters.

She called on patients to keep calling for help, saying: “We want you to come. If you need an ambulance, call an ambulance.”

However she said: “We’re concerned that were this to continue, we would have difficulties for example getting chemotherapy treatments delivered to hospitals.

“We’re concerned that we would have difficulties with laundry services, support for the running of hospitals.” 

She raised fears healthcare workers, including paramedics, might not be able to drive to work if they cannot fill their own cars.

“These are the concerns we are worried may come into being in the early part of next week,” she said.

“So I would ask everybody to please step down from this.” 

The Irish Medical Organisation also raised concerns about patient risks. However, individual doctors have pointed out that delays and pressures are not new within the Health Service Executive and were not caused by the blockades.

In response, Ms Carroll MacNeill told the Irish Examiner: “I think this is a different sort of threat.

“So where you are managing the health system broadly and making sustained improvements that is one thing, this is a threat to the very functionality of the state.” 

Protesters in many regions have been supported by local communities. For example, free food deliveries have been made for those at Whitegate Oil Refinery in Cork.

The minister said “the silent majority” have concerns, however.

She described Government spending of about €4m per day on supporting various sectors through the fuel price crisis.

“It’s more than any other European country is doing, and we’re also doing it for a period that is longer than any other European country; until the end of May and in the case of some of the rebates until the end of June,” she said.

“We had said at that point it would always be the case we would look at additional sectors that are under pressure and see how the situation in Iran, which is the cause of all of this, is evolving.

“And whether additional packages would be necessary.” 

She added: “We will never, more than any other government, be able to meet all of the costs arising from the fuel crisis.” 

Ms Carroll MacNeill also raised concerns about how the protests are happening.

“There’s something different about the nature of this protest which is not something that we’ve seen in Ireland before,” she said.

She pointed to Ireland’s “vibrant democracy, very strong civil society groups” and said the Government regularly engages with recognised unions such as the Irish Medical Organisation or the Irish Farmers Association.

“This stability and predictability has been the cornerstone of our society,” she said.

“And an anarchic set of protests - that have no basis in law, no basis in our customs and practice and no validity in terms of the way in which they’ve been conducted - these are not peaceful protests.

“This goes beyond the concept of peaceful protest, this is deeply deeply disrupting the economic and social fabric of the state.”