I know that, as night follows day, the Taoiseach will increase funding and the allocation for the HSE and the health service in the budget. I ask him to, please, not let it be consumed by HSE management. I also asked him to do this last year. He needs to be specific with the increased allocation. Nurses throughout the country are under severe pressure, both mentally and physically. In the first place I am asking the Taoiseach to take County Kerry as an example. An extra 43 beds are needed, but we need 60 nurses to man them. Six beds are closed in Dingle because we do not have enough nurses. They are looking to recruit six nurses there. Nurses are under so much pressure. I will highlight just one case. When a patient's wife was going home the other evening, the nurse asked her to stay for a few minutes longer to help her to put the man into bed. The nurse was actually crying when she asked her to do so.

The Deputy cannot go into individual cases. He will have to finish up.

Yes, but what I am asking is that the allocation be made specific for front-line staff because otherwise they will not continue. Nurses cannot be recruited or retained if they are not paid properly.

The Deputy is, of course, correct on one point - there will be a further substantial increase in funding for health service and the HSE in the forthcoming budget. We are already spending record amounts of money on health services and will break a new record in the provision of funding and resourcess again next year. The important point, the thing that can be very difficult to do, is ensuring the money gets to the patient. It is worth reading if the Deputy has not yet had the chance to do so, but the report of the Public Sector Pay Commission on nursing and nurse recruitment shows how some of the money has definitely got to the patient because the number of nurses working in the health service has increased every year for four years. We have 1,000 more nurses than we had last year. As is the case across the economy, as a result of full employment and because of the enormous demand for additional staff, there are vacancies too.