Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I was at a meeting in my local hospital last week in respect of which vested interests argued the case on specific issues. There were consultants, in both private and public practice, who are probably earning €500,000 per year. If circumstances are as they portray them, how come there were 60,000 people working in the health service in 1997, with an overall budget of €3.5 billion, while there are 120,000 staff this year, with a budget of €15 billion?