Reforming the Health Service
Equality of access to healthcare should be one of the hallmarks of a real republic. Your entitlement to proper medical treatment should depend on medical need, not economic means. Yet we still have public patients on long waiting lists for surgery.
That situation is not acceptable in a prosperous, modern society such as ours. I want every citizen of this Republic to enjoy equal access to high-quality healthcare services regardless of their income or social status.
I want to increase the power of the patient within the system; and I want to make the system more accountable to patients and their families.
Delivering on these objectives will be one of the major challenges facing us over the next few years. It will be a challenge because money alone provides no easy answer - a 50 per cent increase in health spending over the last three years has not solved the problems. It is clear that a major reform of our whole system for delivering healthcare is required.
At the last election we campaigned for a comprehensive value-for-money audit of the health service. That audit is now under way. That audit, when completed, will provide us with a model for a new health service, a service which delivers services more effectively to patients, a service which translates increased resources more efficiently into improved levels of care for the community.
That audit will also enable us to make the health service more adaptable to the changing needs of our society, more capable of coping with new challenges.
Twenty years ago, for example, Alzheimer's was almost unknown; today it is a reality for more than thousands of Irish families. We need to improve the care available to sufferers and the support available to their families.
One of the achievements of which this party can be particularly proud is the progress made in the whole area of disability over the last three years.
In my own ministry for example, I am putting more resources into training and supports so that people with disabilities can participate to their full potential in the social and economic life of this country.
People with disabilities are full citizens of this Republic and well capable of making a valuable and important contribution to our society. They want to participate and we must ensure that they have the opportunities to do so. And given the right opportunities they can achieve great things indeed; as a nation we are all justly proud of all our paralympians who recently participated in the Sydney games.
A New Society
And Ireland will have to become a new society because we live in a changing country, a changing continent, a changing world.
That new society will embrace much more cultural diversity. It will accommodate new people with new cultures and new traditions. Because Ireland is now becoming a more cosmopolitan country.
The arrival of new people here should be seen as an opportunity, not a threat. They can make an enormous economic contribution to this country, and over time I have no doubt that the richness of their contribution will be seen also in the fields of sport and music and culture and community activity.
The real test of our Republic will be how we respond to this development. The Progressive Democrats are a liberal party. It is our duty to oppose right-wing racism and to prevent it from ever taking hold in this country. It is our duty to promote openness, tolerance and acceptance. It is our duty to make this a real Republic, a new Republic.
We all applaud the great efforts to achieve a lasting settlement in Northern Ireland. As a party in Government we applaud particularly the role of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the role of our own Liz O'Donnell at Foreign Affairs.
As part of the new accommodation in Northern Ireland, we ask the unionist community to respect the rights of minorities north of the Border. Let's make sure that we respect the rights of our minorities south of the Border.
Competition for the Benefit of the Consumer
We must promote competition, not just in public transport but right across the Irish economy.
The Progressive Democrats are still the only party committed to competition as a matter of political principle.
We want to tilt the balance in favour of the consumer whether it be telecoms, transport or taxis. We are committed to putting the interests of consumers first. We will always favour the public interest over the vested interest.
Change will not be easy to achieve. The Progressive Democrats' enthusiasm for competition is not shared by other parties. This is an issue on which we have had to fight our corner within Government and we will continue to do that.
And the more support we have, and the more seats we have, the greater will be our ability to succeed.
Conclusion
The Progressive Democrats have been a liberating force in Irish politics. We have liberated this country from unemployment and emigration. We have liberated this country from the anti-enterprise thinking which held us back for so long. We have liberated this country from limited aspirations and limited ambitions.
We are not afraid to think big. We want to end unemployment and eliminate child poverty. We are ready to embrace competition and challenge vested interests. We are ready for radical change, whether it be in the area of tax or transport or telecommunications.
We are the most successful new party of the last 50 years. Compared with any other party established over that period we have had a greater influence on public policy. And we have made a greater impact on the social, political and economic life of this country.
We have achieved so much as a party that people say our work is finished. Don't you believe it. Ireland still faces so many challenges.
It is our policies which created Irish economic prosperity. It is our policies which will protect and sustain that prosperity into the future. It is our policies which will ensure that the fruits of that prosperity are shared fairly among the people of this country. And it is our policies which will provide solutions to the new challenges which will confront this country in the years ahead.
The next general election will be the most important in a generation. It will determine the social and economic direction of this country for the next decade or more.
It will provide a choice between the policies that created the Celtic Tiger and the policies that could destroy it. It will provide a choice between the reforming vigour of the Progressive Democrats and the conservative thinking which failed us in the past. We have won that battle before and, by God, we will win it again.
This party has the ambition and the energy and the imagination to take this country forward into the most exciting era in its entire history. I ask the people of this country to put their faith in the Progressive Democrats.
Give us a stronger mandate to continue the work of modernising Ireland. Give us a stronger mandate to build a new Republic, a Republic based on the simple values of trust, fairness, tolerance, equality and opportunity for all.
I am optimistic. I am confident. The Progressive Democrats have set the political agenda for the last 15 years and we will continue to set it for the next 15. I am determined that this party will be the driving force in Irish politics for many years to come.