There is an issue but continuing objections that lack balance and perspective in the process are delaying many flood relief schemes across the country and that needs to be faced up to, not just by Government but by the entire House. We need balance and perspective in all of these matters.

There is no doubt that businesses have been severely affected, in Midleton in particular. Deputy James O'Connor was at the scene very quickly yesterday evening. He related to me how severe it was on businesses and households. As I said earlier in my reply, we are examining what level of intervention we can make in respect of supporting the households and businesses that have been undoubtedly affected. We have always been strong supporters of Sars down through the years through various sports capital grants. Given i…

A total of 53 have been completed. Where they have been completed they are working to prevent damage. We have to bear this in mind and have an honest debate about it

It is the entire Government that produces the budget and delivers the budget across the board. In terms of any report, I fully respect the right of the chief executive officer of the HSE to comment on the budget, to brief Deputies - and he would not be the first CEO to brief parliamentary representatives in the House - and to engage with the Government in respect of issues pertaining to the budget. I have no issue with the new CEO engaging with public representatives or doing interviews. He is a very experienced pu…

You are getting very nervous now when responding. It is the Labour Party that has an opportunity now and I am just making this point. This analysis needs to happen in my view. I will come to the recruitment issue. Cost management is very important. When I was Taoiseach in 2020 we were presented with information that the 2019 budget would have a €1 billion structural deficit. We dealt with it and we added more. Lo and behold, there will be a substantial deficit again this year. It needs examination given the scale o…

This year's budget will facilitate significant developments. I want to make a point on recruitment.

Many posts that have been funded have not been recruited. A lot of the recruitment issues we have experienced in the past year are not funding related but are human resource issues.

Deputy Bacik should talk to her colleague, Deputy Brendan Howlin, who was both a Minister for Health and a Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. He might fill in Deputy Bacik and give her some insights into how the process works.

What I can say is that-----

-----we have cut costs across the board for patients. We have removed inpatient hospital charges.

We have had the biggest expansion of access to free GP care in the history of the State. Up to 60% of our population now hold a GP or medical card.

We have reduced the drug payment scheme costs.

We have funded diagnostic scans for patients. We have introduced free contraception for women up to the age of 31. We have publicly funded assisted human reproduction, including IVF, for the first time. We have agreed a new contract for consultants and up to 700 have signed up to it. We have added more than 22,000 staff since 2020. Funding has been provided for 22,000 staff since then.

We have increased our hospital bed capacity by more than 1,000 beds at the same time, and we have also expanded our ICU capacity.

We are increasing college and training places. For every GP who retires, between one and a half and three new GPs are working. We also expended huge funding in the context of the pandemic.

We are doing the actions.

Having said all that, and with there having been €7.5 billion in additional funding since 2020, I am making the point and there is nothing wrong in saying there is a need for further analysis in this regard in terms of our growing population-----

Analysis that is logical and informed-----

-----and not just sort of-----

The Deputy spoke about flood relief schemes. He may recall his own comments in relation to the Cork city flood relief scheme, where he described the OPW's proposals as crude and not taking into account the people of Cork's relationship with the River Lee. He backed the campaign to, essentially, undermine the OPW's programme of flood relief. I have no problem with people making submissions and trying to adjust and adapt schemes, but when this goes to the extent of delaying schemes for years, then I do have a problem…