FG can't deliver health package - Blaney 21.05.07

Fine Gael could not fulfil its pledge to deliver 2,300 hospital beds without cutting back other health services, according to Fianna Fáil Dáil candidate, Niall Blaney. "Enda Kenny says the beds would be funded under the new National Development Plan but this cannot happen without cutting back other services.
	"So I want to know which health services, if any, the party would scrap in Letterkenny to fund its national pledge on beds." "Would Fine Gael scrap, for example, the new Accident & Emergency Department, or the additional ward space planned for over the A&E which will provide for 48 beds? These projects and more are fully funded in the HSE’s capital programme."
The Donegal North East candidate said: "As things stand, the NDP provides for 500 acute hospital beds. "Enda Kenny says he would "reprioritise" health funding in the NDP to provide the additional 1,800. That means massive cut-backs in health funding in other areas currently specified for NDP funding." He added: "Fianna Fáil is committed to the provision of continued investment in healthcare – not progressive measures. We have also fully committed to funding cross-border cooperation in healthcare, particularly in the cancer care area. "We are interested in taking the next steps for healthcare in Donegal – not steps backward."