Taoiseach Brian Cowen has insisted that hospitals have to operate within their allocated budgets.
Mr Cowen made the remark during a row in the Dáil about the loss of 100 jobs at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin.
Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore told Mr Cowen that a parent who turned up at the hospital with a sick child would not want to hear about budgets.
The Taoiseach agreed with that statement, but said that increased resources had been made available to the Crumlin-based hospital in this year and in 2007.
He said the health service was being reformed, but hospitals had to operate within their budgets.
