Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As Minister for Health, I do not have the luxury of firing off proposals and platitudes as if they were paper aeroplanes without caring where, how or even whether they land. I have to worry about patients. Above all, I have to worry about good patient outcomes. The changes I have outlined are making a difference for many patients. In addition, all of these initiatives have been costed and are backed up with Government funding, albeit much of it Government funding agreed during the year rather than at budget time. Sadly, I have yet to see any costed proposal from the Opposition parties on how to overcome the many challenges facing the health service. I expect them to do so in their pre-budget submissions. They need to match their rhetoric with actions and demonstrate to me in their pre-budget submissions how effective they could be as potential future Ministers in securing resources for the health service. For 2015 the Fianna Fáil alternative budget provided just €94 million for health services this year, which is significantly less than we will provide. Fianna Fáil has no credibility in calling for more spending or resources for the health service in the light of the proposals it made this year. We should not forget that it cut €1.5 billion from the health budget between 2008 and 2011.

See this speech in context