Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

Hold on. They are highly respected and I believe the Deputy, too, would respect them. The reason they proposed this was to free up the private beds which are designated in our public hospitals for public patients. That remains the plan. The sad reality is that we do not have additional resources to invest in our public hospital programme, regardless of whether I or anyone else is in charge.

The Deputy is adopting an ideological approach to this but it is the most cost-effective way-----

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