Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

We have seen it all at this stage. We have had unnecessary hip operations, unlicensed springs implanted into children, defective technology being a fixture in operations and we have had Wi-Fi issues. There is something new every week. Now, we have a doctor who, allegedly, referred public patients to their private clinic at the weekend and was paid money by the National Treatment Purchase Fund. This fund is meant to be used to expedite the most needy people first but these were not necessarily the children with the greatest need. The Minister's backbenchers keep thanking her, but she must listen to parents. We just heard an apology given to parents in the previous session. We all know we are going to be back here apologising to parents and the Minister is just stringing this out for as long as possible.

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