Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The Minister can talk about other issues if he wants to, and I will go on to talk about other issues. The reality, however, is that I have been looking for these figures for two months now. The idea that they are commercially sensitive in a context when all the private hospitals are in on the deal just does not seem credible. We have a situation where €300 million of public money is going to be handed over. To be clear, and I think the Minister knows this, it is not that I am against having these beds being part of the public system. I am for these beds being part of the public system, but I am not for being ripped off to have them.

The problem I have now is that we are going from bad to worse, in the sense that the Minister is giving up on that deal but we are going to lose the capacity of these beds. We are going backwards as opposed to going forwards to a national health service. I refer to nationalising the private hospitals and bringing them into the public system. My point is that the Minister said we must have equality of treatment for the coronavirus and that we should not treat people based on the size of their wallets. Why, then, is it okay to do that for patients with cancer, heart disease or depression?

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