Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I put it to the Minister that one reason we do not have enough acute beds in the public service is because almost 1,000 of them have been closed. No number of private hospital beds will address that issue. It is not that we do not physically have beds in acute public hospitals, rather that we do not have the resources to staff them. Is it not true that if the Minister gives tax breaks to private developers to build co-located or apartheid-style hospitals in the grounds of public hospitals she will, in effect, be giving taxpayers' money to these hospitals which will not be available to provide public services?

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