An all-island health service makes sense – Sinn Féin to hold major health conference in Belfast

Sinn Féin MP Pat Cullen has announced that the party’s Commission on the Future of Ireland will be hosting a major event on ‘Health and Care in a New Ireland’ in St Comgalls – Ionad Eileen Howell, Belfast on Friday, 6 June at 1pm.

This event will be chaired by an independent chairperson and will involve an independent panel with experts from the sector.

Pat Cullen MP said:

“I am delighted to announce that this major conference will take place in Belfast on 6 June.

“The Commission on the Future of Ireland was initiated by Sinn Féin in 2022 and has hosted many engagements across Ireland and further afield on our future.

“As the discussion on the possibility of Irish unity has increased, so too has the conversation on those policy areas, such as health and social care, which affect citizens most.

“There are many reasons, but no excuses, for the critical state of health services on the island of Ireland. Successive Irish and British governments have not prioritised our public health services. They have failed to plan and invest in services according to need, to recruit and retain enough health and social care professionals, or to modernise health and care provision for the 21st century.

“Waiting times have grown unacceptably long in the north, where the crisis is exacerbated by savage Westminster cuts and the impact of partition on our ability to make decisions that maximise all-island potential.

“Part of our collective task is to encourage, inform and further the conversation on the kind of new Ireland we want to see: a fairer and more equitable Ireland in which all can enjoy a better quality of life and can have access to a health service that meets the needs of a changing society.”

Continuing, Sinn Féin health spokesperson in the Dáil, David Cullinane TD, said:

“I am looking forward to this important discussion. All-island cooperation and planning makes sense. Advancing free at the point of access to healthcare involves building on the co-operation and co-ordination that already exists through greater integration of existing services.

“It is the responsibility of the Irish government and the Executive to work together to improve health services for the people of Ireland. They should also give the health and care community the necessary space to deliver improvements without regard to the border, in a fair and shared way.

“The Irish government should convene a Citizens’ Assembly and other deliberative forums to actively discuss and plan for constitutional change, and to harness the positive energy and momentum which exists.

“On an island of seven million people – less than the population of most of the world’s great cities – it makes no sense having two separate health services with no all-island healthcare plan.”

You can register to attend ‘Health and Care in a New Ireland by clicking here: Health & Care in a New Ireland Tickets, Fri, Jun 6, 2025 at 1:00 PM | Eventbrite
Note to editors:

• The Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle established ‘The Commission on the Future of Ireland’ as an ambitious public, sectoral and private consultation on the future of Ireland. The Commission will accept written contributions and hold both public and private sectoral engagements, and actively seek contributions from all sections of society on this island and beyond.
• Written contributions to the Commission on the Future of Ireland can be made online at www.sinnfein.ie/futureofireland.
• This event will take place in St Comgall’s Ionad EIleen Howell, Divis Street, Belfast BT12 4AQ.
• For any further information please email [email protected].