Concerns over cuts dominate Carrickmore woman’s first year as MP

By Mark McGoldrick

PAT Cullen has slammed the British Government for ‘targeting the most vulnerable in society’ after hundreds reached out to voice their fears over the proposed welfare and health reforms.

The 60-year-old Carrickmore woman recently marked 12 months as the MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

During her first year as representative for local residents, the former nursing union chief has experienced a real sense of fear and anxiety felt by constituents who worry that the area is being left behind.

“I have seen it in my own office, people are really concerned. There are people who are worried, crying to me about what they were going to do and they are the people who have been targeted,” said Ms Cullen.

The Sinn Féin politician has been inundated with residents voicing their fears for the future after the UK Government proposed significant welfare reforms, prior to its major U-turn on its policies.

Ms Cullen feels it was wrong to suggest the major changes to the PIP system.

“It was symptomatic of a British Government targeting the most vulnerable in society, people that are unfit to work and trying every day to get through on the breadline,” she explained.

“The Labour Government promised that they would support the people that were totally dependent on the welfare state, but those are the people that they are targeting. It is just shocking.”

Funding

Prior to her foray into politics, Ms Cullen served as the head of the Royal College of Nursing.

Spending the majority of her life working in hospitals and closely with healthcare workers, the MP insists that the health sector has been underfunded, putting patients and staff at serious risks.

“The health system has been under-invested in for the past 14 years,” explained Ms Cullen.

“When they were taking money out of the health budget to balance the books, the largest part came from nursing. That had a major impact on the wider healthcare setting and on patients.”

Ms Cullen claims the financial cuts has had a knock-on effect on the increasing waiting lists.

“A man recently contacted me to say that he will be on a waiting list for seven years for a very simple orthopedic operation which could give him back a great quality of life,” she said.

“He is struggling on high levels of painkillers. He has been caring for his wife who has recently got a cancer diagnosis and now all of a sudden he needs a new hip.

“I find that heartbreaking and shocking because I know what life could be like for him if he had that operation.

“I think it’s wrong to do that,” added the Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP.

Ms Cullen has been in regular contact and held different meetings with local health campaigns and representatives from the Western Trust over the situation at the South West Acute Hospital.

She feels that ‘honest conversations’ over the hospital’s future is needed.

“People feel that because the Emergency General Surgery has been withdrawn, it means the closure of the hospital. It has caused some real anxiety for people,” explained Ms Cullen.

“I believe that the Western Trust has not done enough to work with the constituents that I serve to alleviate those anxieties and have those honest conversations with them.”

Discussions

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council recently agreed to form a local Irish Unity working group to consider the best way to plan for future constitutional change on the island of Ireland.

The MP, who played a key role in helping Sinn Féin produce a consultation document on the make-up of an All-Ireland Health and Care Service, said she thinks a referendum is getting closer.

“The conversation has increased. I hear it on a daily basis; people having those conversations with me and conversations from all parts of society,” said the Carrickmore politician.

“We need to be open, to be honest and engaging with people on their fears and aspirations over a new Ireland.

“I think we’re closer than ever to Irish unity.

“We need to set out what public services will look like within a new Ireland. We need to engage with everyone that needs to be part of this.”