Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I can understand a GP being concerned if the accident and emergency department in a hospital is to close. Of course, they would be concerned. We all have our own concerns. Discussions are taking place with the general practitioners.

In regard to senior medics, particularly the surgeons working in the mid-west, I do not know to whom Deputy Noonan spoke this morning. He seemed to have a Fine Gael perspective on the world. No Government has reduced tax more, as that consultant should know, than the parties that have been in Government for the past 12 years. Therefore, I do not understand why he thought we did not reduce tax. However, Deputy Noonan presumably has his own friends who talk about death and taxes, but I have spoken to many consultants not only in the mid-west but throughout the country and I know that many people working in medicine in Ireland are enthusiastic about the reform——

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