Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

I had a conceptual difficulty the last time as to what was meant by "stretch income targets". I assure the Deputy that the last thing we have done this year in the national service plan 2019 was to invest €85 million. We had to put money into hospitals, effectively, to reduce their income targets largely because of the impact of the campaign by insurers to encourage people not to use their private insurance if they are going the emergency department route, which people are entitled to do. We have lower income targets this year than we had last year. Some people are still off those targets and, if they are choosing to call that a stretch, I would say that is inaccurate. They have income targets which are lower than they were last year. I am not quite so sure what is meant by stretch but it is so they have targets to control costs.