Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Tánaiste's announcement last year that she would support the building of private hospitals on the grounds of acute public hospitals where they are not already there — many public hospitals already have a private hospital on the grounds — was to ensure that beds taken up on a private basis by consultants who have contracts that allow them to do private work are moved into the new private hospitals and replaced by beds in the public hospitals.

The second issue is the debate on how many more public and private beds we need. There are many different views on that. The Government's view is that we require more private beds. We have produced approximately 900 over the past few years and there are plans for many more in hospitals around the country. Based on the number of people who have private health insurance, there is a demand for day and private beds in those locations.

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