Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

He is willing to accept the position of the HSE and the Department on that but, when both of them say that the deficit this year is €1.5 billion and that, regardless of what they do, two thirds of that will be recurring, he and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, say no, that they will give them €708 million and that they will have to introduce a recruitment embargo. We talk about inefficiencies in health. This is a prime example. We can see the nonsense going on now as regards people who have made applications. First, all the recruitment that is taking place is being cancelled. That does not come without a price tag. In some cases, we are talking about international recruitment and headhunting people to come into the HSE, which is done at a significant cost. All of that has now been cancelled in respect of the grades to which the suspension applies. There is also the administrative process we have now created wherein arguments must be made for specific derogations and so on. If you want a good example of an inefficient system, there it is. If you underfund a service and force it to run at a crisis point, that is what you get. You get a waste of money. That is where the waste is. The waste is not in allowing patients to come in and be seen in an emergency department and treating them with the drugs they require. This is the type of waste we have now.

Mr. Moloney has said the conversations are ongoing. I want to understand exactly where they stand because we have this Estimate coming next week. Has the Department of Health resiled from its position, which was that it was in lock step with the HSE on two thirds of this year's deficit being recurring? Has that position changed?