Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

When the transfer of functions took place, €2.4 billion of the HSE's budget, which it would formerly have received from the Department of Health, transferred to our Department thus creating very large additional responsibilities across our Department that covers all areas of specialised community-based disability services. When the final tally was done for the pay element required for us to support everyone across disability, there was an additional €27 million. So that funding has just been transferred from the Department of Health's Vote into our Vote. It is the final rounding out of the overall cost of running disability services by the HSE, formerly for the Department of Health and now for our Department. That is the reason for the €27 million.

As I said, going into 2023 the budget for disability was €2.4 million. As a result of budget 2024 and the increases that myself and Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, secured, the funding will be just short of €2.6 billion in 2024.

The Deputy mentioned the pay agreement. I am very pleased the pay agreement has been agreed. I have no doubt Deputy Sherlock is about to praise us for getting the pay agreement over the line as it is something he has raised on many occasions over the years.