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

No, I am asking whether, when the Minister presents a document such as this - clearly a great deal of work and thought has gone into it - he should produce figures in the abstract, or whether he should produce figures that take account of the fact that, for instance, there is a crisis in accident and emergency departments across the State.

I also noted that, on the welfare resource allocation, we are looking at a decrease of, I think, €137 million from 2015 through to 2017. Presumably the Minister will tell me this is because he envisages more people coming off the live register, or it could be a factor of continuing emigration. Nevertheless, that figure begs the question around different cuts that have happened in the system and whether, in this new era when the Minister tells us he has more to play with and that we are seeing the green shoots of recovery, we are actually going to see any repair to those cuts that people have endured. In welfare, I would specifically instance what constitutes a relatively small expenditure but is an important payment nonetheless - respite care, which got absolutely decimated. I could equally talk about the disability sector, which has endured very substantial cuts.