Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Cabinet committee does not deal with the detail of the running of day-to-day services, but it does have political oversight of what is happening. The net expenditure of the HSE to the end of February was €2.226 billion, which was under profile. The expenditure of acute hospitals was about €28 million above profile. We are providing more money than ever before for the health service, at €14.5 billion. I have outlined that the winter initiative was to deal with the increased numbers of cases coming through and the challenges in staffing and so on. I assume that in the case of Deputy Mick Barry's friend, because the condition of his hip is deteriorating, his doctor should be in contact with management in the hospital to say it has now deteriorated to a point where it needs urgent attention. As the Deputy knows, these things take a while to develop. If his friend's condition has worsened, the clinician might make a decision that it needs attention more urgently than thought.

The Minister for Health has set out a whole range of issues with which he is dealing to improve the health situation and he will keep at that for the future.

See this speech in context