Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

As I said, the hospital in Leopardstown is a particular hospital. I think that Deputy Kenny knows we have 53 acute hospitals across the country and very few of those have not had major capital refurbishments and an injection of capital in recent years. Leopardstown has its own development plans. Recently, it has had its own campaign in inviting Deputies from all sides of the House to look at those plans and to see what can be done to improve them. What we have done and what we must continue to do relates to a large part of the increase. We have increased the health budget from €4 billion to €16 billion. It is not the billions that count, it is the staff numbers, and there has been a huge increase in staff numbers to give that care.

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