Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

They are all part of an integrated health service. The Minister proposes that we will see an acute hospital group with a consolidated management team operated by a group CEO. What does that mean? It means we will have accountability and deliverability. It also means that we will ensure that the smaller hospitals will play a vital role in our health service.

Everybody understands why Fianna Fáil opposes the introduction of reconstituted not-for-profit hospital trusts. When in government, Fianna Fáil and its obsolete friends in the Progressive Democrats and the Green Party supported the for-profit model of collocation. Does Deputy Kelleher remember collocation? Deputy Martin opposed it in Cork because it was bad for him politically.

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