Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The problem for the past 25 year is that very little has been set aside in the capital budget. In real terms it is a case of developing services in a piecemeal way because not enough moneys have been put into capital funding. To take the example of the three maternity units in Dublin, they are all more than 150 years old and we are now talking about dealing with those over a short timeframe. It is not only a matter of maternity services when we talk about capital budgets; it is the entire area across the HSE. The director general referred to a figure of €9 billion. I would probably agree with him. It has not been an issue for the past five years but over a period of 25 years.