Fiona O'Malley (Dún Laoghaire, Progressive Democrats)

I suggest that the Opposition is completely enslaved by its ideology. The initiative of the Minister for Health and Children in increasing the number of public beds in this country has been completely misinterpreted. I prefer to call it a "reclamation project" because it involves the reclamation of 1,000 public beds, exclusively for the public health service, and needs to be recognised as such. Those who use some warped form of logic like to refer to it as privatisation, however, which does not make any sense. Some 1,000 beds, which are currently subsidised and designated for exclusive use by the private sector, are to be returned to the exclusive use of the public health system. That is what this initiative is actually all about. Those who interpret this policy in any other way are doing it a disservice. They are scaring the public by suggesting that the number of available beds is decreasing.

See this speech in context