Cian O'Callaghan: “These delays are not abstract. They involve people waiting for cancer diagnosis.”

The hospital has a deal in place to do lab work for a private hospital.

This includes public patients with cancer. An early cancer diagnosis can save a life. Delayed diagnosis can be fatal.

A previous stamp duty cut took place at the end of the Celtic Tiger era, at which point the country was promised it would not happen again without proper protections being put in place.

A quarter of all work carried out at the Galway University Hospital lab comes from the private hospital Bon Secours.