Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

The programme for Government is exactly the same as the letter from the Taoiseach. Maybe some people misunderstand that. Some project agreements have been signed and some involved in negotiations are about to be signed. The commitments in the programme for Government cover all of those.

The issue here is to return our public hospital infrastructure as much as possible to public patients. More and more of our public hospital activity in recent years, prior to the recent consultant contract, has been private. That does not make any sense from the taxpayers' point of view or to those who are medically ill and need access to acute care. I want them to get that access. The bonus of collocation as opposed to private hospitals 5 miles down the road, which some people favour, is that the consultants, the critical medical manpower, stay on the one site.

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