Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I do not wish to discuss why somebody is on administrative leave. I will, however, outline to the Deputy the advice I received. I am informed that there was no systems failure involved. When the recruitment process took place, one person applied for the post. That individual was taken on to fill the position but is now on administrative leave.

Those who run the 35 hospitals to which I referred earlier would argue that we should have state-of-the-art equipment. That is precisely why we are moving away from that position. We are following best international practice by having fewer centres. Northern Ireland used to have 19 centres but it now only has five.

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