Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. O'Brien and his team. I also welcome the investment of €12 million in the ambulance service which is good news. Prior to Christmas I had been led to believe that the investment might not happen so I am happy that it has.

With regard to primary care team posts, I do not expect the delegation to be terribly specific about them. What is the timeframe for recruitment? When will the scheme be operational? Other issues have been raised by some of the people seated to my right so I shall not raise them.

I was one of the people, in common with most of the members, who was present during the medical card debacle when there was an avalanche of applications due to the collapse of the economy. People had to apply for medical cards who heretofore would never have even considered doing so. The number of applications was unprecedented. People who were critical of it, and I was one of those, acknowledge Mr. Burke and his staff for the progress that has been made with the matter. The workload was unprecedented and I hope that we never see anything like it again. I ask the committee to ask Mr. Burke to convey that message to his staff. I am not saying that the system is perfect because nothing in Ireland is perfect. People like ourselves who are given to permanently criticising should acknowledge the work that has been done by public servants to deal with an unprecedented situation. I acknowledge the work that was done by those public servants.