Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

We need to invest here at home in infrastructure such as schools, as was stated last night, but also, for example, in the health care area. There is a verbal commitment to community care teams. We could invest in buildings where we could have GPs, physiotherapists, social workers, public health nurses etc. in their communities working in multi-integrated teams. That is how we should be spending our money.

If there is a reduction in tax revenue, there is also a reduction in the amount of money to spend on services. That is a real concern, particularly when we see the kind of cutbacks evident in the public health services, in schools not reaching targets on class size etc. There is much more I could say but I will leave the time to my colleagues.

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