Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

You are getting very nervous now when responding. It is the Labour Party that has an opportunity now and I am just making this point.

This analysis needs to happen in my view. I will come to the recruitment issue. Cost management is very important. When I was Taoiseach in 2020 we were presented with information that the 2019 budget would have a €1 billion structural deficit. We dealt with it and we added more. Lo and behold, there will be a substantial deficit again this year. It needs examination given the scale of increase that occurs on an annual basis. This applies to all parties in the House. Some of this is societal demands, such as ageing demographics and inflation. By the way, the expenditure overall in the past two or three decades has worked because our survival rates for cancer, stroke and infant mortality have really improved.

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