Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The second part of today's engagement with the Minister concerns public expenditure. Some of the more positive outcomes of the troika's arrival into Ireland have been the way in which budgetary management is scrutinised, the types of budgetary reform that have taken place and the fact that Departments must report on a quarterly basis and those figures must be shown to add up. What the committee hopes for is that those budgetary and fiscal reforms will be reflected in how the committee deals with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Finance. The Minister will recall that last year - it happens every quarter - some concerns arose in the area of health in quarter one and quarter two, and in quarter three we had a balloon payment, as I explained earlier. In the Minister's estimation, are the budgetary criteria and the budgetary figures indicating any amber or red lights at this stage?