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

The Deputy has to reflect on what the Government has provided in the past two years. In that time, an additional €1.3 billion has been invested in the health service. It has been the greatest recipient of any resource at a time when we are now able to reinvest. Priority has been given to health by the Government. The Deputy must also recognise that we had a lost decade. I will not go into the origins of that, but investments that everyone would have liked to have made were not possible. Now, however, we are returning to a position in which we can make prudent investments. The national children's hospital, the national maternity hospital and the national forensic psychiatric hospital are in the building pipeline and will provide increases.

We are ensuring that the extra €1.3 billion is spread judiciously across all demands. Everyone recognises that there are demands, but the Deputy must also recognise that there have been genuine service improvements. Consider hospitals such as Beaumont, St. Vincent's, Cavan, Connolly, Mayo and others, which are delivering improvements. They are exemplars. The Minister is determined to ensure that good practice in those hospitals is mirrored in others where there are continuing difficulties.

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