Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)

We must stick to the time. I ask members to give the Minister and the witnesses time to respond to the questions. We want to stay on track. There will be a chance for people to come back in. We will get through the questions as efficiently as possible. I have a number of questions I would like to put.

I will start by voicing my support for the homeless hub in Cork city, which was mentioned by Deputy Burke. It is a crucially important project. We have been waiting far too long for it. I visited Cork Simon Community earlier this week. There is real concern about the lack of services during the day for people. The need to have those services and supports in place has been long promised. There is also a need for safe injection facilities and drug consumption facilities in that capital spend in that centre. That will be lifesaving for people in Cork city, and we have waited far too long for it.

In relation to the management of funds, I share the concerns of the Deputies around the pay and spending budget, particularly in the context of spending on agency staff. The briefing document we got in advance states:

Pay expenditure is projected to be on budget for 2025, which is a significant achievement and shows that the revised controls over the pay budget have been successful. However, it should be noted that Agency saving targeted for 2025 will not be delivered - instead, overspends on Agency Pay have been offset by underspend on Core Pay arising from recruitment being behind target.

It is a real failure that we are offsetting the overspend on pay for agency staff by underspending on permanent staff. It is a poor use of public funds.