Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The current embargo has been in place for a month and is now to be extended for another month. Will the Taoiseach issue a direction to the HSE to recruit frontline staff so that the service can at least continue at whatever unsatisfactory level it operated up to now?

If, as the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ó Cuív, says, it is not working, will the Taoiseach do something about it? The current situation, whereby the State, as the Taoiseach rightly points out, is spending a great deal of money on the health service which is not delivering the goods to patients at the end of the line, cannot be allowed to continue.

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