Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to touch on the health allocation, which we just discussed briefly in private session. It is an area of great concern following the announcement of the budget. The HSE and the head of the Department both stated that the expenditure required in a standstill scenario for 2024 was between €1.9 billion and €2 billion. We can see from the estimates provided in the expenditure report that what has been provided for existing levels of service is €708 million, €100 million of which is defined as new measures and €432 million provided on a temporary basis as a health resilience fund. Has the ESRI had a chance to look at this issue? Has it arrived at any conclusions on the issues of the adequacy – or not – of the funding provided for health in a standstill scenario? This dreaded thing we used to talk about was fiscal space but is now ELS, that is, existing levels of services, and the fog and confusion that exists around that. Has the ESRI had a chance to look at it from a budgeting perspective? Does it believe the health allocation is transparent? Does it believe it is accurate? I have been spokesperson now for many years. The presentation of the budget is now more confusing than it ever has been because we are doing one-offs and non-core expenditure. It is playing with numbers, in a way, to try to fit into certain targets that certain parties set themselves.