Mr. Robert Watt:

You cannot set out a budget in October and then say a few weeks later, after the Government has decided the budget, that you cannot stay within the budget. That is not how the system is meant to work. Everybody has to stay within the budget.

There are issues here around financial planning and financial control within the acute system, which the CEO and I have spoken about, and we have spoken to the Minister about it many times. We will have to do better. It is a wider issue and a systemic problem. There is a challenge always to try to meet higher needs, demands and prices, and we accept that. We cannot turn people away. We cannot not buy the drugs because they are more expensive than we forecast. We need to get to a better place where we understand and have a budget that people are committed to, and there is a risk around that which we accept. Mr. Gloster and I committed that the debates that took place between us and the HSE on the service plan will not happen again. The way in which this process is conducted needs to be better. We are not happy about it. The reality is there were differences of opinion on the financial risk.