Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will stay on the issue of data and analysis and ask a more contextual question about how we devise budgets in this country. Mr. Barnes mentioned that we do not have up-to-date figures on the implementation of Sláintecare. There is certainly huge frustration that people cannot have sight of the capacity review for the health service because that will obviously have major budget implications.

Regarding medium-term budget planning, we have heard from IFAC and other groups that we do not always do it very well in this country. Is it fair to say that as we move towards more performance-based budgeting, the medium-term outlook is more about setting targets and then deciding how they will be serviced? This would allow the tax base to be adjusted accordingly, looking at what we have to spend and where we will spend it, rather than what we tend to do in this country, which is annual budget development.