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

This has been a quite long debate. I was glad to have had the opportunity to speak earlier. It is difficult in five minutes to respond fully to every point raised in the past three hours. I will do my best to mention one or two points raised. Deputy Billy Kelleher acknowledged the fact the mental health budget increased by 16% during the term of the outgoing Government, the Fine Gael-Labour Government. He pointed out that I was forgetting that we were coming from a low base. That is probably a fair point. I remind the Deputy which party was in power at the time of the low base; it was, of course, the Deputy’s party. We all need not to forget that.

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