Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Can we have less of the denial? No one can pinpoint the proposed cuts in the health service at this stage because the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform handed them to the Minister for Health with a take it or leave it ultimatum. Meanwhile, the HSE claims the cuts will amount to €1 billion when they are finished, not €666 million. The Taoiseach is getting many warnings. The system is telling him it can take no more, certainly not cuts of this scale. If they go ahead, patients’ lives will be lost as a result. The Taoiseach had better get that into his head, intervene, change tack and policy.

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