Ms Louise McGirr:

We circulated a note to the committee. There not one inflation figure that represents health inflation because the provision of health services is a complex basket of goods and services and there is also a lagged effect in terms of inflation as we come out of contract. There are, therefore, a number of factors that will be at play next year. We forecast, maybe optimistically, that inflation will not be as high as it was this year but the impacts this year are likely to be seen in contracts going forward. Therefore, we do not see inflation reducing; rather, we see the level of increase slowing down.