David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Hang on a second. No, we have had a very serious issue with the funding of the health service. They go to great lengths in all of their notes to say the sharp differences they have between the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, and the HSE and the Department. The head of the HSE has set out in stark terms what went on in his perspective, sent to the Minister for public expenditure and reform, which we are now being told went from the Secretary General of the Department of Health to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. He cannot then say that was something that was missed. If it was sent to him and it is of that importance, then it is absolutely incredible that he would not seen that. It is worse than that, and I will relay some of the other things he said because it goes to the heart of all of this as well. What the Minister for Health has said and what the head of the HSE and the Department have said is that most of the deficit of this year will be recurring next year. What he actually said about the issue worries me even more. Mr. Moloney said: "I cannot speak to his position", as in the head of the HSE, and "He did not make that point to me." Today, the Minister for Health has said that health inflation is running at between 10% and 17%.