Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

Ten minutes ago Deputy Shortall was suggesting the opposite to me. The Deputy is correct that one cannot look at these payments in isolation from each other. One has to look at them as a cohort of payments and examine how one can get the maximum benefit from them. I do not argue with that point.

The Deputy is correct about access to public services. As much as any Deputy in the House, I hold clinics every week and there is a significant shortage of people, for instance, in occupational therapy. We have thousands of vacancies and we do not have persons qualified to take up the posts.

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