Programme for Government
Dail Éireann — 2023-12-05
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Leo Varadkar (FG), Dublin West

We do not when it comes to An Bord Pleanála and that is the whole point.
To respond to Deputy Conway-Walsh, I cannot and will not be answering questions on behalf of Mr. Watt. What I can say is that the health budget for 2024 will be the highest ever. Waiting lists are down 20% from their post-pandemic peak. Health outcomes are improving and life expectancy in Ireland has never been longer. This is money that is being well spent. There are also 20,000 additional staff and 1,000 extra beds since the Government came to office with more to come. If there is a deficit next year, and it is not unusual for there to be a deficit in the HSE budget, we will deal with it by means of a supplementary.
To respond to Deputy Ó Murchú, the terms of reference for the Covid inquiry have to go to the Government. We hope this will happen soon. We are keen to engage with the Opposition on it. We will have to find members to serve on it and this will be complicated because we want people to serve on the inquiry who can be members of it but who were not involved in making decisions on Covid or commenting on them. This will be quite a challenge.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-12-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-12-05