Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have a programme for Government to which we are operating. That is the arrangement and that is the truth of it. Deputy McDonald must see that we are improving the situation in health even though we have problems there. We are treating 20% more people in our health service and 2 million people will have operations this coming year as a result of the investment we are putting into that, so there are many people coming into our hospitals, getting good treatment and having their lives improved as a result of the investment we are able to make. The reason we are able to make that investment is that we worked carefully over the past couple of years to get 200,000 people back to work. We are talking about 200,000 pay packets going into homes and revenue into our Exchequer. We are able to invest in education and health. That is the only way we can improve our lot.

I have heard Sinn Féin. It criticises, condemns and expresses outrage about everything but supports nothing. It has opposed every single effort by this Government and the previous one to provide improvements for our community. I quoted Teddy Roosevelt last night. He drew a distinction between the critic, who is abundant on the Opposition benches, and the doer, who gets into the arena and delivers change that has a real impact on people's lives.

See this speech in context