Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is too early in the year for us to form a view on it. January, February and March were on profile. January and February health expenditure was below what we have seen previously. March expenditure was a bit higher than before. One of the many lessons I have learnt from what happened in the past 12 months is the need for us to continue to engage on this issue and have an aligned understanding of how the expenditure is developing during the year. We did better on it the year before last.

Things did not go as we wanted last year. For the third year in which the Minister, Deputy Harris, and I are working on it, we are looking to find new ways to deal with it. That is why we are doing these meetings. Officials are present. My officials have been meeting officials from the Department of Health in the run-up to each of those meetings.