Mr. Fergal Goodman:

I wish to add one point on foot of that contribution. Towards the end of last year when the Government initiated the work around the review of allowances a series of decisions was taken. One was that a certain percentage of expenditure on allowances was to be achieved in the current year and parallel with that there was also a requirement to save an amount on overtime expenditure. That was carried through, for example, in the HSE’s national service plan. The requirements were reflected in what was said there. Even at that point a distinction was being made at Government level between what were allowances and what was overtime. As the Deputy said, there may be a blurring of the issue and different definitions in play but that was our read from that point of view that overtime was something different.