Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I ask Deputy Ó Caoláin, as a reasonable person, to look at the argument. If we take 1,000 public beds and improve on that number in a short period, the consultant staff, about whom the Deputy said he is concerned, will still have the private beds but we will have more beds in co-located sites. There is no difficulty with that. The system will work perfectly well. It works well at present in a range of public and private hospitals and co-located hospitals. I have watched it work well for years and there is no difficulty.

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