Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to tell the Minister that I am here as an Independent, not to lambast or pick up a cudgel, metaphorical or otherwise. I am here to articulate what the people elected me to, which is a different narrative from the one the Minister has articulated. In regard to the health service, people have told us repeatedly at the doors in Galway that they want a public health service based on need, not greed or profit, and they want that in return for taxes. Not one of them asked for a reduction in taxes.

We are here seven weeks now and the Minister has made his first statement on health to an empty Dáil. Presumably the gentlemen and women involved are outside the House, negotiating behind closed doors on health and public health, but not one of them is present to hear what Independents and other like-minded people are articulating today in order to inform a policy for the new Government from the Opposition benches in a positive and constructive manner.

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