Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Noting the increased provision of 3%, particularly the much stronger base from which subheads I3 and I4 operate, consequently securing a significantly larger supplementary provision for the end of 2015 than subheads I1 and I2, HSE Dublin Mid-Leinster and HSE Dublin North East, did the HSE carry out an exercise to confirm need in each of the four regions in questions, rather than simply providing for a blanket percentage increase? There could be circumstances within subheads I1, I2, I3 and I4 where greater need can be identified.

Do these named HSE regions coincide with the new designated hospital areas? I assume they cover more than simply the hospital groups, in other words, all the various service needs, including community health services and mental health services. I presume this is the wider picture for each of these areas. To take subhead I.2, Dublin North East, elective orthopaedics are no longer provided in the entire new RCSI region. The former elective orthopaedic hospital at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Navan is now in a very different entity. This has a significant impact in terms of the range of services that are available to people across the RCSI group of hospitals. In any event, to return to the basic premise of the question, which relates to the critical 3% figure, would it not have been a better exercise to establish need rather than to increase expenditure by a percentage figure? Is there a logical, assessed basis of need that has determined the various figures provided?