Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is the Government which wants to have it both ways. On the one hand, it wants to send a message to the electorate that it will dispense largesse from the Government’s coffers. When one actually looks at and drills into the figures, however, one finds that this is not the case. I am working on the assumption that the projections made in the comprehensive expenditure report still hold. Will the Minister clarify that nothing in this document has changed in the light of the spring economic statement or from the forecasting in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform or the Department of Finance? For all of the rhetoric and the Minister’s compliance with the various rules and regulations for which he argued at the time of their introduction by way of treaty change, the reality is that the health system is still stuck in gridlock, with patients on hospital trolleys in accident and emergency departments and long waiting lists. I cite the example of the Department of Health because, of all Departments, it is the one in need of the largest propping up year-on-year.

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