Mr. Paul Bell:

I will take the Deputy back a couple of steps. The health service has been subject to two massive shocks in a 40-year period due to recession followed by cuts in public expenditure. In the meantime, the demand for the service continued to grow. We are talking about the changing demographic in the country whereby there is a big requirement for care-of-the-elderly services. There is a concentration on trying to put that type of service into the community, which is right, but it has to be funded. We all talk about funding on the basis that healthcare, whether we like it, is labour intensive and every service is connected.

In response to Deputy Donnelly's question on whether priority has been given to front-line services, he should remember that the HSE, and the Departments of Health and Public Expenditure and Reform, for their part, have never formally confirmed that there is a recruitment embargo or a moratorium. That has never been said.