Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

On the Deputy's question on whether we would reflect and consider better ways to engage with staff at the coalface around what savings are practical, that sounds very sensible. To the extent that hospitals and community services are not already doing that, that is something we will take away from this meeting.

Regarding the stretch income targets, and perhaps it is a language issue, but the point I am trying to get across is that there is an obligation to levy the charge once the individual meets certain criteria. It is not as if people should be levying a charge in some way that is a stretch. Their task is to levy the charge when it is appropriate to do so. When I said we have not changed the target, I mean the €345 million is not dependent on somebody achieving a stretch target. If we were to lower the income targets, we would have to find more savings because the income targets and the income that has been raised support the costs of providing the service.