Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will appreciate that I have not held this brief for very long and am still learning it. On the underspends in Departments, he indicated that the overspend in health will have to be built into the base if it is determined that it is a recurring cost and that he will try to mitigate that partly from taxes which have exceeded expectations. We know that some are running above what was predicted, especially corporation tax. He also stated that he would try to offset or mitigate some of the overspend by utilising the underspends in other Departments. If there is a consistent underspend in a Department, is the reason for that identified? Is the underspend then deducted from the base the following year or is the budget allocation made without reference to such underspend?