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

I welcome Deputy Griffin's comments. I had the opportunity to visit Kerry General Hospital with him and the Minister of State, Deputy Deenihan, some months ago, and I was very impressed by the performance of the hospital. It has its problems, like every other hospital, but it is going well in so many ways. It was very good to meet the staff there and see the important work they are doing.

The requirement to have a second on-call theatre team would require ten additional nurses and four additional doctors. Of course, even if that can be funded, there can often be difficulties recruiting them. However, it is certainly under consideration in the context of the service plan.

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