Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their statement and report. I wish to concentrate first on health. The opening statement referred to there being "evidence of poor budgeting on the spending side". Professor McMahon pointed out overruns in health, said they were "obvious before budget day" and that despite this, they "were not catered for sufficiently in the budget". I will ask my questions on this issue together. Have we ever had a situation where a known deficit was built into the budget in this manner before? Does IFAC agree with the description of the health budget by the current Secretary General when he said, in an email to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, in advance of the budget announcement, that introducing a budget on this basis was not being honest and was a clear breach of public financial procedures? What is meant by a "breach of public financial procedures"?