An extra £1.5 billion has been spent on the health services over the past three years but there is not the equivalent of a better service, the Tanaiste has said. Interviewed on RTE radio yesterday, ahead of the Progressive Democrats' annual conference, Ms Harney said privately insured people could have a "fantastic" health service, but there were others who did not have a health service appropriate to a "modern, dynamic, wealthy country".
On the economic boom, she said a "purpose to the current prosperity" had to be addressed. "The purpose of all this wealth is to have a fairer society. We don't have a fair society in Ireland."
There was a distinct difference between the PDs and other parties, she said. "Take tax as an example . . . We tax companies, shortly it will be 121/2 per cent on their profits; we tax capital gains, if you buy a piece of land and sell it, you only pay 20 per cent on the profit. We tax labour . . . people pay 44 per cent. I believe that is wrong. Not too many others believe it is wrong.
"Only last week, Labour published a document saying `let's leave taxes the way they are, except for people at the bottom'. Of course we all want people at the bottom out [of the tax net]."
She wanted to deliver lower taxes for the average trade union member, not the "fat cats" who, in her experience, did not pay much tax, or had not in the past.
Another difference was in the attitude to competition. She said there wasn't a proper taxi system because "we haven't as a country heretofore been prepared to take on a vested interest. There is a huge agenda there".
Asked if this had been her annus horriblis, Ms Harney said "perhaps". Over the past few months, she had done a rethink on what she wanted. "Clearly when you lead a political party you have a responsibility for others and in the run-in to the summer I suppose I was suffering from burnout. I was beginning to have doubts about myself. It was a question of so many things coming together."
Asked if she was tempted to throw in the towel, Ms Harney said: "I can't say I was tempted to throw in the towel in the sense of packing it up and moving on, but it is something I did go through, yes, definitely, and I think that is quite natural."