Gilmore: Cowen ‘gobbledegook’ hiding health cuts

LABOUR leader Eamon Gilmore accused Taoiseach Brian Cowen of using “gobbledegook” yesterday to gloss over the fact that job cuts at Crumlin Hospital would affect services for sick children.

Asked in the Dáil about Crumlin’s plan to cut 100 temporary and agency workers because of budgetary pressures, Mr Cowen spoke of consistent overspending at the hospital and said the State was already providing additional once-off funding for Crumlin this year because of its financial difficulties.

But there was a need for budgetary discipline, he warned, and hospitals would have to work within the funding allocated to meet their service plans.