Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The HSE is short? Come on. If Mr. Mulvany was in Tesco and €346 million was the bill and he said he had €60 million, they would say he is more than short.

Where did that figure come from? The HSE must have estimated that those savings could be made. It must have looked at an area where current spending could be cut. I know the health service well and I know how hard people work in it in administration, front-line services and right across the board. Somebody somewhere came up with the figure of €346 million. Was the calculation that such a saving had to be made and the HSE would then see how to do it, or was it a result of looking at the system and identifying scope for savings of €346 million? If the latter is the case, my question still stands: where did the HSE think it was going to find it? It is nearly November and there is no funded workforce plan for 2018.