Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I have two questions. First, given that the HSE is going legal in respect of four suppliers regarding ventilators, how many of those have had legal papers lodged so that the legal process has commenced? Second, reference has been made to the €200 million that was underspent in the budget that has come into this year. How much of that relates to things like vacancies in the service? Naas General Hospital in my constituency has vacancies for 50 nurses. Is this about the HSE being prudent or is it an underspend on resources necessary to deliver the health service? We have a huge waiting list with 900,000 people and additional waiting lists for things like speech and language therapy. What is the basis of the €200 million underspend?