Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Reilly, replied to these issues in the House yesterday. If Deputy Martin or another Deputy wishes to put questions to him, I am sure that he will happily reply. In any event, documentation is available publicly under the freedom of information system. I would have no difficulty with making documentation available.

I read newspaper reports this morning and met the Minister, his Department's Secretary General and the new CEO of the HSE. They told me that there had been no ministerial involvement of any kind in the selection of individual sites for primary care centres.

Regarding the issue of whether I was consulted, one must remember that this process occurred in the context of the production of an economic stimulus package worth €2.25 billion, which was announced by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin.

A decision was taken to increase the number from 20 to 35. I was consulted about that and I agreed with the rationale for it. My primary concern was that we had a good stimulus package and it maximised the amount of input into the economy and the creation of jobs. I agreed with the increase from 20 to 35.

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