Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The budget for health this year is €13.5 billion and a further €330 million will be spent on the capital programme, which excludes the development of the National Children's Hospital. This is the one area where the Government has made sure adequate moneys are pumped into the system. What is wrong is the way the expenditure has been spent, the effectiveness with which it is spent and the delivery of services for people who need them. Health is always about patients and patient care. In Northern Ireland, where Deputy Adams's party members are reluctant to put their heads above the parapet, they are laying off 4,000 health care staff, reducing the budget by €4 million, and 26,000 people were on a one-day strike last year. Deputy Adams cannot come across the Border, which he tried to move for 30 years, and say there is a different perspective here. Deputy Adams is the leader of his party and is required to participate in the situation in Northern Ireland yet he feels he can come down here and cast a different reflection. I visited many of the community nursing hospitals around the country.

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