Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would respectfully say “No”. I would do so for two reasons. The first is that the budget process is not just about allocating to Departments on the basis of need, and it is also based on the availability of money and resources. We have to allocate money based on all of the different competing demands that are there. The second point is to reiterate the value of the last answer that I gave to the Deputy. In more normal times for our health service, before the pandemic hit, there was a huge swing and variation in the value of the Supplementary Estimates that were needed. In some years, even though it is still a very large amount of money, it was between €195 million and €380 million, which is considerably smaller in value than where we are now. From my perspective, if we give a commitment that additional billions of euro are available outside of the supplementary process and the normal budgetary process, then we do so at the expense of trying to do more work on how we are spending this money and the governance arrangements.