Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

Will the Minister take cognisance of geographical areas if ten centres are designated? If she repeats what she did under the cancer strategy and leaves a vast swathe of the country without a service, that would not be acceptable, particularly in regard to rheumatology services, which many people need.

We have a lost a great deal of time in the appointment of consultants because of the time it took to renegotiate the consultants' contract. Will that be taken into account in the context of the number of consultants appointed this year and next year? If the negotiations had not taken so long, presumably many of the additional consultants would have been in place at this stage.

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