Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to argue with the Deputy but we cannot flip a switch. The Deputy is comparing apples and oranges when he refers to capital and revenue budgets. He says it is €25 million, although I am not certain his figure is correct, to bridge the gap but that is each and every year. The other budget to which he referred is a capital budget for a build which is a one-off cost. They are very different. Further, we have not spent an additional €1 billion on any children's hospital. The Deputy makes the point that we found €1 billion but we have not spent that yet. Be that as it may, while it may not be politically opportune to bring the children's hospital into this, it is also the case that it is not relevant factually. I have explained already to the Deputy that we have made very significant progress on the issues of pay in very challenging times. We have come out of the deepest, most difficult and darkest recession the country has endured in the history of the State and we are only starting to get back on our feet economically. We do not have a magic wand to fix everything. The Deputy can take a sectoral approach and progress and campaign for matters piece by piece. We have to take a helicopter view. That comes with the responsibility of Government. We have to do it within the confines of the public sector pay agreement which we cannot jeopardise. There is only so much capacity within the agreement to deal with these issues. We also have only a finite budget. We are engaging with the relevant people and intend to address the matter when we can.

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