Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On the issue of staff figures, some estimates were given earlier which are not necessarily supported. It is important to point out that we are not proposing to ban private health care. We would not have the power to do that. Indeed, all countries have some element of private health care. We are not talking about eliminating all that or eliminating the jobs in that sector.

The other point we are making is that with a properly functioning public health system, we would need to greatly expand capacity, both in primary care and hospital care. We would envisage significant numbers of people being recruited to the public sector in order to provide critical primary, community and social care supports. It is six of one and half a dozen of another and it is important not to engage in any kind of scare mongering in that regard.