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

Leaving aside the particular utterance, I reject the substance of the allegation. Let us not forget the history of recent years. Under this Government of Fine Gael, the Independent Alliance and Independent Members, we have increased spending for health two years in a row. In the five previous years we held health spending at the same level or increased it slightly. There were three years of cuts to health spending. Each of those three years occurred when Fianna Fáil was in office and when the Deputy was a member of Cabinet. He is the person who cut the health budget three years in a row. We stabilised it and have now increased it again. I absolutely reject both the content and the tone of the Deputy's language.

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