Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

If one of my predecessors, Deputy Noonan, had stood here in 1996 and stated that in ten years we would be spending four times more on health, that there would be 45,000 additional people working in the system and that there would be an extra 110 consultants working in the area of cancer care, nobody would have believed it was possible. If people did believe it, they would have stated it would be fantastic. We have invested a great deal of money but there is always a need for more because there are competing demands. It is not always possible to have the most modern equipment because there are 52 acute hospitals and we have a massive hospital infrastructure. It is a question of priorities and balance. Demand might be for expensive equipment such as CT scanners, MRI scanners, PET scanners or new beds, refurbishments, new facilities or new hospitals. We will spend approximately €600 million on capital investment this year and the figure will be similar during the coming years. Radiotherapy facilities alone will cost approximately €500 million. Money for this is in the national development plan as is money for the national children's hospital which will cost a couple of hundred million euro. It is not that we do not want to spend the money but that there are competing demands on the money and it is a question of deciding priorities each year for each hospital as we allocate resources.

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