Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a sense of responsibility to the people we serve. We serve the people. This is not a joke, but a very serious matter. This letter from the four CEOs is a serious letter and is written from their perspective. The budget for health this year is over €13 billion, with a capital programme of over €350 million. We had a situation for a number of years in which the extraordinary rises in health spending brought the budget above €15 billion but did not deliver the services needed by the patients to whom Deputy McDonald referred, and to whom I have a responsibility, or the standards they deserved. That was never going to change unless the structure of health services delivery was changed. This is not an easy job. The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, has probably the most difficult task of any Minister in this Government, given the complexity of the situation.

The legal requirement of the HSE is to produce the service plan, based on the budgetary figures as adopted by the House.

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