Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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The Minister likes quoting figures and I saw the report that was published recently by the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service. It is a good thing to measure activity because we have to ensure we get productivity. As the Minister said, that chart shows that UHL has gotten more resources cash-wise and staff-wise than any other hospital. I am sure the Minister will agree that those figures only mean something if we know what the base figures were. It is all very well to say UHL has gotten a whole lot in the last couple of years but what was the starting point? The kinds of figures I quoted to the Minister now in terms of the beds, category of hospitals - no level three hospitals and only one level four hospital - and only a fraction of the consultants that the other hospital groups have are much more meaningful than to say UHL has gotten more resources than anywhere else in the past few years. If UHL started from such a low base clearly it has not even come close to catching up with the other hospital groups.