Mr. Liam Woods:

We are working on the basis that we have to achieve a balanced Vote by the end of the year as part of our normal interaction with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and within the HSE so our challenge is to get a balanced Vote and the measures we have under way are intended to move us in that direction.

The Deputy asked a question about systems. At the moment, we have eight primary legacy systems, which are what he would understand to be the health board systems that existed some time back. We import all that information into one central database and we also import more than 50 sets of data from voluntary bodies, which we amalgamate to produce a single set of financial reports on a monthly basis. As has been referenced by the chief executive officer and the Secretary General, our desire is to have a single system that does that automatically and in a much more efficient way, which would support effective financial management, but that is what we are working with at the moment.