Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

While that all sounds well and good, there seems to be a perennial problem and we go from crisis to crisis in the health service. It is not rocket science. In a country where there is a lot of money sloshing around, we should have a health system that works for everybody, regardless of whether they are millionaires or unemployed. That is how it should work. Nobody should have to wait two years for any sort of assessment. It is a disgrace.

The closures at the Linn Dara facility and elsewhere come down to not paying nurses properly. The past seven or eight years have taken their toll on nurses and other public sector workers. They are demoralised and have to work an extra hour per week just to make ends meet. This is the fundamental problem. On Friday at 4 o'clock in Cherry Orchard there will be a protest over the cutbacks.

There is another point about public sector pay. I do not want to make it personal because I try to differentiate between the personal and political.

However, the Taoiseach is going to walk away with a massive pension in two weeks' time. He will get a golden handshake and a pension of €150,000. Most people listening to these proceedings will be nauseated when they hear that. That is the two-tier system we have in this country, where politicians go off into the sunshine with golden handshakes and big money. Is the Taoiseach not ashamed of what he has left behind?

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