Mr. David Moloney:

The Minister for Health negotiates the budget for the HSE and the Department of Health. The HSE Vote is within the Department of Health Vote. The Accounting Officer is the Accounting Officer for the Vote. It is not that I was unaware of what the HSE wanted in terms of money. The Department would reflect that. That is part of the negotiating process. That is not different from many other years in terms of the negotiating process. I cannot speak to the assessment of risk because that conversation has not been had with me. The assessment of risk has to be seen in the context of 24,000 extra staff and €7.4 billion extra spending.