Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is the entire Government that produces the budget and delivers the budget across the board. In terms of any report, I fully respect the right of the chief executive officer of the HSE to comment on the budget, to brief Deputies - and he would not be the first CEO to brief parliamentary representatives in the House - and to engage with the Government in respect of issues pertaining to the budget. I have no issue with the new CEO engaging with public representatives or doing interviews. He is a very experienced public servant. He has been in public service for 34 years. He was very involved with Tusla and its reform. We look forward to working with him. He is only six months in the job.

The Irish healthcare system has received significant investment in recent years since the Government came into office. The health sector has been prioritised, with increasing budget allocations of more than €7.4 billion since 2019. This excludes funding for disability services. By any yardstick this is a significant increase in funding over a relatively short space of time. In this context, my view is that we need to do a deeper analysis of healthcare expenditure, parallel with analysis of future trends and ageing demographics more specifically. I noticed, leading into the budget, that the amount allocated in some Opposition budgets was very similar to what the Government has allocated. Sinn Féin's budget was the very same.

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