Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

——will worsen that two tier system. The Taoiseach will permit the cherry-picking of the profitable procedures. He will turn the public health service into the poor relation. He is pushing ahead with that without any public mandate, knowing that the country is divided on it, knowing he has no support not just from this side of the House but from consultants and professionals working in the service, and the openly expressed reservations of the HSE.

Why is the Taoiseach pushing ahead in those circumstances or is he saying that no matter when he chooses to dissolve this Dáil, it is not possible between now and then to sign these contracts and that he will get out of it in his usual way by not taking a stand on the Progressive Democrats, by seeming to facilitate it and it will fall when this Dáil falls?

See this speech in context