Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

Extra investment has brought about major results, including record levels of activity in the acute hospital system and a range of extra services across all programmes. Total patient admissions to hospital are up from 300,000 to over 1 million. Waiting times for operations have been dramatically reduced from years to months. I know the Opposition does not like us to talk about that but those are the facts. No longer do 75% of children and adults wait for more than a year for heart operations. Since 1997, the number of public acute beds has increased by 1,600.

I could go on but I do not have time. I do not want to finish, however, without addressing what Senator Ulick Burke will say. During its term in office, the current Opposition raised the health spend by €400 million.