Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the health overspends, I am quite concerned to hear the phrase "soft budget constraints". The witnesses are saying that because the overruns in health have been persistent, the Department of Health and the HSE have become accustomed to getting the surplus funds they require and management is therefore becoming more difficult. The more one facilitates overruns, the more they will happen. Does the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council forecast another significant overrun this year? Will that once again be plugged by corporate tax receipts, thereby funding permanent expenditure with volatile revenue on which we cannot rely, which we should never do?