Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

I will ask Mr. Desmond to comment, but, first, while I am not trying to be difficult, unfortunately, the public health care system does not hold to the Deputy's analogy of someone running a coffee shop, a GAA club, a charity or a business. It is not as straightforward and simple as any of those things. I am not saying the Deputy's question is not valid in the sense that there are questions that need to be answered, but the analogy does not really hold. He would have to compare us with other public healthcare systems. He mentioned a specific point several times which is called out in the service plan, that we do not have, nor do we ever hold, a contingency provision. We are not in a position to do so. In the private sector a contingency provision for an organisation with a budget of €17 billion would be something in the order of 2% to 4%, which for us would be a sum in the order of between €300 and €600 million. We do not hold such a sum and the service plan calls it out every year and is approved on that basis.