Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

Thank you. To make my point clear, there were 34 people on trolleys in Letterkenny General Hospital today, the day of the budget. The reference made by Deputy Bruton, the Fine Gael spokesperson on finance, to the fact that there are people on a continual basis on trolleys, should have been taken more seriously than it was. The reaction was like that of a junior or senior infant primary school class in the Dáil today and was disgraceful.

We need to ask deeper and more pertinent questions about the budget. How come the Evening Herald could print most of the content of the budget prior to the Budget Statement? How is it various media could print snippets of the budget all during the week? How is it we have been drip fed the budget all week? Has some of the budget been leaked?