Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I concur with Deputy Michael McGrath. If I was the Minister for Finance, I would be absolutely seething. Let us go back to the point in November when the Minister became aware of this. Several weeks before that, one of the key issues he was dealing with was the budget. One of the key issues in the budget was Department of Health expenditure and the supplementary budget, which was not known to the Minister for Health or the Minister for Finance until the days running up to the budget. There were intense discussions between Departments and, I am sure, Ministers on the supplementary budget and the budget for 2019. The Department of Health knew of an overrun, as did the Minister for Health although he may not have been able to quantify it, but the Minister for Finance was kept completely in the dark and walked into the Dáil and presented a budget. Next week, he will have to tell us which projects will not go ahead due to an overrun that some people were aware of.