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

We might stay in the arena of transparency and accountancy policy. It is super helpful when we have a member of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform present. I raised the issue of virements with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on the last occasion when we had a member of the then Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in the room. Virements are where the Department, to my mind, sidesteps the process of bringing a Supplementary Estimate to the relevant committee. In previous sessions, we talked about the fact that there were 249 virements in 2021, to the value of €1.5 billion. That is almost 2% of gross voted expenditure, a very considerable amount. We are three years into the term of this Government but, as a relatively new politician, I am advised this is not normal. I understand that Covid happened but, still, we are talking about incredibly large sums of money.

My first question is in the context of health. The Department of Health decided to push through €594 million in virements in 2021. Could Mr. Watt state why the public financial procedures were not followed?