Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Ireland's health budget runs to €20 billion per year. Ireland spends roughly the same on healthcare per capitaas Denmark and Austria but yet while Austria and Denmark are third and fourth on the CEOWorld Magazine's healthcare ranking index, Ireland is 80th. The difference between Austria and Denmark and Ireland in relation to healthcare spending is quite extraordinary. They rank countries in terms of infrastructure, costs, health outcomes and medicine availability. Something is obviously wrong. Once one gets into it, the Irish health system is as good as anywhere in the world. The staff are as motivated and trained as the best in the world. There is obviously a huge issue around retention and around health and safety but the elephant in the room is privatisation in our health system. A huge amount of the money from that €20 billion pool goes towards private healthcare. There has to be something wrong if Ireland is 80th in this league of healthcare providers in the world.

See this speech in context