Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to remind the committee of what the Minister, Deputy Reilly, had to say about the budget for child and family services at the Joint Committee on Health and Children last week. He referred to having been asked "whether child and family services will carry any deficit forward" and confirmed that they "certainly will bring their proportion of it because otherwise other elements, such as disability and the HSE, would have to take it". I hope that what the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, is saying is accurate. However, the Minister, Deputy Reilly, seems to think the Department of Children and Youth Affairs will have to take a proportion of it.