James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

The Minister has €16 billion in her budget. She can find €10 million. She can give us 20 reasons not to do something rather than find one way to make it happen. I already covered that with her.

The Minister made the argument that she has choices to make. The choices are not between cervical screening and cervical vaccination but between front line services and bureaucracy, taxis, meetings and bonuses for the bosses. Those are the choices. What about the 5,000 redundancies that we were supposed to see? We have not seen them.

The Minister says she cannot do this. I quote the President-elect of the United States: "Yes, we can." I say to the Minister that if she does not reverse this decision, and if the Minister of State beside her, Deputy Andrews, does not do so, she will be forced to vote on this matter, and on her future as Minister for Health and Children, on the floor of this House. This is a step too far. We are at a crossroads in this country where the choice is between Boston or Berlin. We know the Minister has gone to Boston in respect of health care but the country is not going with her. The people aged over 70 will not go with her because of the medical card issue; disabled children will not go there with her, children with special educational needs will not go with her and the children affected by today's decision will not go with her either.

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