Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Clearly, there are policy issues, but for both the Department and the HSE to come before an auditing committee one has to talk through the figures. Without getting into the fine detail of policy choices, they must at a minimum be able to reassure us that a balanced budget can be struck, and furthermore in the public interest, to assure people, I am not sure how they do this, that it will not be at the expense of annihilating further front line services. It strikes me that Dr. McLoughlin is making a claim - this has been repeated here several times - that a balanced budget will be struck. He has not queried the figures that I have given to him. He asserts that it will not affect front-line services. I find it extraordinary, if all of that is true. I do not see where the Department will get its €438 million. I do not see where he conjures this resource from, unless he goes to the front line.