Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is as if the Government parties got the Fianna Fáil manifesto, which it did not want and which was rejected by the people, and decided to follow that one instead of their own one.

The Government of today has options and choices. It is senior hurling now. The Minister of State cannot come in here and say that none of us embraced this. The Minister of State is in the position to do something about this. Poor Senator Colm Burke or Senator Gilroy, who are under the Whip, are not in a position to do something about it but as a Minister of State, Deputy White can do something about it. If he does not want to embrace it, he should not do so; he should go back and say to the Ministers, Deputies Howlin and Noonan, that what we want to do is to raise more funds from the people who are better heeled to shoulder the burden, and those people are there. In terms of universal health care, as a individual on a personal basis, I am absolutely against it. If one is particularly wealthy and is not elderly or young and has the funds to be to pay for this, then I agree one should pay, but that should not apply to the elderly, the infirm or the most vulnerable.