Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)

They allowed the number of employees in the health service to expand to 111,500 in 2007, and now we have to deal with the fall-out. They introduced an embargo because they had to try to deal with it and now it is coming down on us again. When they got to that level of staffing in the public service, we all began to hear about the pyramids of administration. A manager had to manage three new staff and then there were people above that again and again. They introduced a recruitment embargo and an early retirement scheme that-----

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