Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Conroy and Professor McMahon for responding to Deputy Doherty. I also have some questions and observations, while we are on the issue of under-provision in the health budget, which is well known. It has been ventilated here, on the floor of the Dáil and elsewhere that the Minister for Health in the Estimates process last year requested approximately €2 billion from the Minister for public expenditure. That was his Department's assessment of what was required to operate the health service at a certain standard this year. The Minister was offered €800 million by his colleague, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. He accepted that but he made the very clear case that it was essentially an inadequate Estimate for his Department and the HSE.

We are being prepared again, for the presentation of a significant Supplementary Estimate to the Dáil this year. It was rather casually mentioned by the chief executive of the HSE at an event in Dublin in recent days. It was also reported in the media that it is likely that we will have a Supplementary Estimate this year. This has become routine over the last number of years. Not only are operating in an environment where fiscal gimmickry - and that is a legitimate charge - has more or less simply been accepted and this is the modus operandi of this Administration, but we are also now inured to the fact that there will always have to be Supplementary Estimates. That is no way to budget. I would appreciate the representatives' comments on that. Those of us who remain in this room do accept that our health service is inadequately funded, our public services should be prioritised more and there are political and policy decisions to be made in that regard. Undoubtedly that is a form of abuse of the budgetary system, quite frankly. There is an assumption that the Dáil will wave it through. This also does away with constitutional responsibility in this regard because it is an abuse of the budgetary system. There is therefore fiscal gimmickry on the one hand and there is also the misrepresentation, and in my view, the deliberate misclassification of expenditure. It is a three-card trick designed to con the Dáil. That is the first thing I will say.

My other question is regarding a function of the Dáil that is not being respected. The budgetary process in this State is evident and has been established through successive Governments. It has been the case for as long as anybody can remember. It is a creature of the Executive and there is very little parliamentary oversight. This point was well made by experts who have been engaged to advise the Irish system post crash on how we could better monitor, evaluate and plan for budgets and public spending, etc. In effect, we are looking at a supplementary budget. Whatever way you slice and dice it, it will more or less deliver the €2 billion the Minister for Health requested last year. Is that not the case?