Mr. John Kinnane:

The €22.5 billion also included an additional €500 million that was not included in the summer economic statement for non-core expenditure. The non-core expenditure is being increased relative to where it was expected it would be. There was a lot of work to be done to work through the numbers and reach an assessment as to how much of this is being driven as a legacy of the pandemic and how much is recurring expenditure. That work needs to be done and is being done at the moment. That will continue over the coming weeks and months to arrive at an assessment. There was additional money provided to the health service over the course of the last number of years to deal with the pandemic. That allocation was reduced in 2023. At the same time, the health service appears to be dealing with a lot of demand pressures arising from the overhang of the pandemic. That work is ongoing. That is something the Department of Health and the HSE will be working through.