Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is looking for €338 million from the Oireachtas, but within that there is an overspend of €450 million, which is why it is relevant. No one has suggested that we seek not to be able to add things to the budget but, as he said, that amount is €90 million. If he was here looking for the €90 million that the Oireachtas agreed for extra services, that would be fine but that is not what this is. It is €90 million of a €450 million overspend so the measures that the Oireachtas sought account for one fifth of the total overspend; it is the other four fifths with which there are issues. I acknowledge that the Minister of State was not a Member between 2006 and 2009, inclusive, but for five or six years there were no overspends and in the time that he has been here and in a ministerial role the overspends have been approximately €500 million. It seems reasonable that anyone in a ministerial role when overspends were that high would look back to the period when the overspends were zero and have a view and would have asked officials to run the numbers to see why. It is reasonable to expect the Minister of State and the Minister to have a considered answer to that because therein might lie some of the ways by which we deal with the overruns.

There seems to be an absence of performance metrics. Some are detailed but quite a few are not. In acute hospitals, for instance, it says the money needs to go here and there.

Can the Minister of State explain why there are no desired performance outcomes accompanying a request for very large amounts of taxpayers' money?