Cian O'Callaghan: “The hospital has a deal in place to do lab work for a private hospital.”

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

Next week's budget needs to address what he described as the "repeated failure" of recent governments to help wider society and those most in need.

This should include a €400 energy credit for households earning €70,000 or less, a €15 increase to the State pension, a €300 per month cut to childcare fees, a €1bn investment in disability services, a second tier of child benefit…

These delays are not abstract. They involve people waiting for cancer diagnosis.