Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Not alone is there a recruitment embargo but industrial action is under way on foot of that. Those who actually run the health service have confirmed for everybody that there is a recruitment embargo and that is going to have real effects in terms of junior doctors, home help workers and so on. There are also 200,000 people on diagnostics waiting lists, 200,000 people on community waiting lists and 600,000 on the acute waiting lists. That is 1 million people, or just shy of it. I do not know what form of delusion the Taoiseach is labouring under but, I have to tell him, nobody else is.

What I want to know is this: did the Minister for Health ask for adequate funding? I have to imagine he did. I do not believe for one second that the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, came up with the bright idea to underfund the HSE to the tune of €1.3 billion. I have my criticisms of the Minister, but I do not believe he did anything as reckless as that. I would like to know whose bright idea that was, within Government. Was it the Minister for Finance? Was it the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform? The least the Taoiseach owes the House and the people is clarity on that point.

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