Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The question I put to Mr. Moloney is how much of the overspend this year is recurring or is the view within the Department and the Minister's thought process that none of this is recurring? That is the only logic to what was presented on budget day because not a penny of the deficit has been provided for in the base. Inflation is running at the levels it is, demand is going up and there is an aging and increasing population but somehow we think we can provide less, as a percentage of core expenditure in comparison with previous years, just to keep our services standing still.