Dr. Susan O'Reilly:

There are implications and, again, this would revert to the HSE and to the Department of Health around the funding and being the accountable officer myself for the funds that we provide to our seven hospitals. The issue could be that if we failed to manage our budget effectively and well there could be penalties. It could be that the budget deficit carries forward to the next year and then the group starts off at a disadvantage which, if it happens, is a very difficult thing to deal with. We are incentivised to do the best we can but we can only do the best we can; we cannot actually magically produce more money than the insurance held by these individuals. It must be remembered that a budget is a plan for where we are going to get to, which is based on assumptions. It is like the Government's annual budget. We are unlikely to be 100% spot on. I will be very interested in how my colleagues address this particular challenge.