Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Let me give a quick view. The process between the Department and the HSE has much improved, I think. If we were to go back a few years, what happened then was that the HSE would submit a bid to the Department that was very large. The Department would then, essentially, advise me as to what it thought a reasonable bid was, be that on new services, ELS or whatever. We would then engage with what was then the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. This year, there was, I think, a very constructive discussion between my officials and Bernard Gloster and his team. Actually, the HSE's position and that of the Department were not really that different.