Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. It does matter that, literally, in the days before budget day I secured an additional half billion euro and that is important. The position that they had there on the figure of €808 million did not include the €500 million that we did get. Close to the end they did move and moved considerably.

What is precise is the cashflow projection. On the Supplementary, for example, that was a very straightforward meeting between the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and the Department of Health to say, this is what the cashflow is to the end of the year, this is what is needed, and it was resolved very quickly and fairly amicably.

What is more difficult is the projection into next year, as evidenced by the significant gap between what transpired this year and what was projected last year. It is a pretty inexact science to try to forecast patient demand, activity and inflation, particularly in the volatile international environment in which we live.