Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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That is a fair point and we often presume that during what Mr. O'Brien referred to as the good old times everything ran smoothly in the HSE from a budgetary point of view and that was clearly not the case.

I would like to return to the issue of agency staff. With regard to the committee's relationship with the HSE, Mr. O'Brien's predecessor told us, as Deputy McCarthy said, that the planned 50% reduction in the use of agency staff was "unrealistic". It does not inspire confidence in a system when the Accounting Officer describes budgetary aims he is charged with implementing as unrealistic. I do not ask Mr. O'Brien to comment on that but can he outline his perspective on the reduction in agency staff? Was 50% a realistic target? Is there a new target now? Where does that stand?