Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The Minister's pre-election cash pile is piling up faster than the trolley counts in our hospitals. On a day when we heard that young people are paying record amounts for an average family house, is the Minister not concerned that what he has done in terms of bumping up spending in the pre-election year after depressing spending last year is playing fast and loose with the Irish economy? The former Minister, Mr. McCreevy, did it and I am sorry it seems the current Minister is determined to repeat it. The only people who will have to bear the fall-out from this are those who did not get the services they were entitled to last year——

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