Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Can I ask why? Dr. O'Hanlon may not be able to answer. The figure we received from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is €45 million. That does not take into account reduction in locum costs or real cash savings, so let us assume the figure is closer to €20 million over a full year. We do not know exactly. A full-year sum of €20 million is minuscule in the context of the €17.4 billion current spend unveiled yesterday. This is an obvious way to save money. Arguably it is a higher priority than some of the items we saw in the budget yesterday. Do the witnesses have a sense of why we are seeing such intransigence on the part of the Government towards one of many obvious solutions to the need to hire more doctors?