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

On the first question, the Deputy said 242,000 hours were allocated in the first few months of the year. There are 800,000 for the entire year. If there were to be a freeze until November, as everybody is trying to suggest, there would be an unmerciful drive to try to allocate 500,000 home help hours between November and December. What the Deputy is saying does not make any sense. There are 800,000 additional hours. There is a total of 18 million hours for the entire year. A freeze between now and November would mean that there would be 15 million hours to be used in November and December. What the Deputy is saying does not make any sense. She can ask the Taoiseach if she has any issue with anything he said. I do not speak for him.

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