Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

——because it makes sense. Unfortunately, there was an EU dimension and we could not proceed with this, but the reality is that these initiatives which will create 1,000 public beds for all the patients of this country will be made available at less than half the capital cost of doing it the traditional way. Furthermore, we shall be staffing them for €74 million, instead of the €300 million it costs at the moment, because the staff are there.

See this speech in context