Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

When the money follows the patient everybody will want to go to the top specialists in Dublin the whole time. The current policy on Navan hospital is to provide some specialties which people can access at local level. That is what is important in health care. We see also the evidence that the costs of this universal health insurance will be far greater than anything the VHI has done, and Fine Gael needs to outline that to their voters.

The most crucial aspect, however, is that it criticises the Health Service Executive all the time, particularly HSE administrators-----

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