Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is a very fair point. I reiterate that if we have to find additional resources for pay measures above and beyond the Lansdowne Road measures that were agreed by and expected by Government in advance of the preparation of budget 2017, there is no new pot of money to use. I am conscious of that and I am sure the INMO is conscious of that as well.

The IMO - the doctors - is being dealt with in the process of the anomaly in the Lansdowne Road agreement. As the Deputy knows, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has outlined that that will have to be dealt with centrally by Government. The SIPTU process, if I can call it that, is yet to conclude in that regard.

With regard to the INMO, we had already provided for the recruitment of 1,000 additional nurses in budget 2017. I do not wish to pre-empt this, but if we have a successful conclusion in the WRC and if there is a cost to that - I do not want to say too much about this or I could get into all sorts of trouble - I would be happy to come back to the committee and talk about how that cost would impact on the current Revised Estimates before the committee today. If the Deputy's assertion is that there is not funding within this Vote to meet those additional costs, that is an assertion that is correct.