Maria Bailey (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach. To clarify, I did not use all of the time allocated for my opening statement because I thought the Taoiseach might go over time slightly, so we are still on time. I thank him for his opening statement. I remind Chairs that 14 minutes have been allocated to each group of three in the d'Hondt sequence. If a Chair is not present, I will move to the next Chair in the sequence. Each person will have one minute to ask an initial question. The Taoiseach will take three at a time. He will have four minutes for his initiation reply. There will then be a second round for that same group of three of one minute each, followed by a four minute reply from the Taoiseach.

We will then move on to the next group. The clock will be used as agreed and I ask everyone for co-operation in respecting the agreed time limits, where possible. I also remind Chairs that we have also agreed, as a general principle, that they will ask questions about the policy areas covered by their committee, with flexibility in the cases of major policy issues or policies in the remit of more than one committee. I call the first group of Deputy Colm Brophy, Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, Deputy Michael Harty, Chair of the Joint Committee on Health and Senator Gerry Horkan, Vice Chairman of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach. I call Deputy Brophy.