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

The Deputy makes a fair point. There are different accounting systems in place but there is also a phasing issue in that we are dealing with a further two months. A huge amount of effort is being made to ensure that we manage health expenditure inside the budget day parameters.

The latter point the Deputy made is correct. At times, in managing expenditure within the Department of Health, the issue has arisen towards the end of the year as opposed to earlier. The latter did not happen last year and that is why I am being very careful in my assessment of where we stand in the context of health expenditure. There has been an improvement on where we were last year but this is an area that is going to require constant focus from me for the remainder of the year.