Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to be drawn on the last reference to austerity because austerity is when there are options available, whereas necessity is when there are cuts that must be enforced and inflicted on everybody. All sectors of society had to be impacted, including education, health and the public service in general. The private sector also had to face cuts that were not welcomed by any means, nor could nor should they be. Those cuts were a necessity, however. It was a point in time when there was a stage at which we could either have gone forward or gone down and then remained down for a long time. I get sensitive when I hear references being made to that time because I remember it well. I was in the middle of it.

The other point is that I was thinking about the embargo and so on and this is seen as the big issue that should probably be resolved. I am not so sure that it will be. Given there has been a massive increase in staffing levels throughout the health services in general, and we know this and it is acknowledged, is there a suggestion that some quarters were overfilled when places had to be filled and others were not sufficiently augmented?