Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No effort is being made to put patients first. We had partisanship in the Chamber before the summer break. We decided that we would not accept an innovative proposal from Fianna Fáil to pass legislation in one day and that we would delay it until after the summer break. The cutbacks that we predicted happened. That is unfortunate, but it is a lesson for the Seanad that we must not remove ourselves from our duty to help the people.