Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

May I tease out the figures that the Minister placed before us and seek a clarification on the number of contracts that are under negotiation presently? I may have misheard the Minister. I thought she stated 30 are under negotiation. I want to get a more qualitative analysis of the present state of negotiations. The reason I ask that is because I believe it is pertinent to the amendment.

The current state of negotiations could be influenced by whether or not further stimulus is given to primary care centres that may be under negotiation presently or that persons may be thinking of setting up where they may have started cursory negotiations with the HSE or the Department of Health and Children. Given the present state of the economy, the state of those negotiations will be predicated on whether there is a stimulus provided and an amendment such as this will definitely have an influence in bringing more of them to fruition. That would be my party's view.

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