Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It is important, for the purpose of clarification, to note this issue concerns vulnerable people and I wish to make clear what are the facts. There are 5,000 respite places in this country and Members are discussing an issue regarding the budgeting of 130 of those 5,000 places. Consequently, there are 4,870 places in respite that are not affected in any way by the discussions that are taking place today.

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