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

I grasped that point. The problem with that scenario is that this year, reducing the cost of drugs was to bring in €124 million, but that has not happened. The recouping of the full cost of private beds in public hospitals was supposed to yield €143 million, that did not materialise. What worries me is that the witnesses are working on an assumption that by year end, that is 2012, they will secure these moneys. I wish it could be so and I wish them well in their task, but I find it extraordinary that they are telling us they will fill a hole of €0.5 billion in the budget, taking only an additional €58 million from front-line services and on the basis of policy decisions and policy measures, which were announced last year but did not come to pass, which arguably have left the current hole in the budget. On a basic analysis I do not see how the figures stack up.