Mr. Fintan Hourihan:

We commissioned research by a health economist before the cuts took effect. The research showed that the cost of the cuts would be three times higher than the cost of keeping the existing benefits. The savings achieved by keeping them would be three times higher than the savings achieved by abolishing them and the converse follows. One would need a health economist to consider the number of cases. However, a public survey has shown that there has been a 40% increase in the number of acute hospital admissions.