Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister says he believes we can meet the needs of the public. How are we going to do that when the needs of the public are not being met at this point in time? That is the reality. We are looking at this one item but we could look at other issues such as delays, operations and so on. Thousands of people who have had their needs assessed cannot have them met as a result of budgetary constraints. Does the Minister accept that? The Taoiseach told us he would examine this issue and dig deep into the figures. If the Minister has some way to meet those needs within the existing resources, I ask him to please tell us about it. The HSE says it spoke to the Minister last year when the budget was allocated. The budget has been increased but the transport time of home care support is now factored in, and rightly so, which meant an increase would have been needed regardless. There was also an increase in numbers caused by demographic changes. The need has now exceeded the budget.