James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We had this discussion at a meeting of the select committee. The Deputy would like the world to believe that during his party's time in government no Supplementary Estimates were introduced in the area of health. Fianna Fáil-led Governments more than quadrupled the health budget between 1997 and 2009, but in 2010 the then Minister for Health and Children brought forward a whopping Supplementary Estimate of €595 million. The Deputy refers to Members on this side of the House engaging in fantasies. However, he has no sense of reality at all. What he is good at is the old Charlie Haughey trick, that "If I say it often enough, it becomes so." That is not reality.

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