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

To reiterate, every element of the health service is providing a hugely important service from the Government's point of view. The Deputy seems to suggest that we can easily divert resources. Some 1.7 million procedures will be carried out this year, for example. People will be waiting for those procedures and we have to meet those needs. Similarly, other people need home help hours. Some 52,000 or 53,000 of them are receiving those and every month we add another 1,500 people to that.

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