Mr. Jim Breslin:

Normally one would start the discussions for the year with an estimation, if one was to maintain the services one is currently providing, of what would that cost one next year. One would have to factor in items such as medical inflation where technology is introducing extra cost. One would try to factor in issues of demography, for example, under the fair deal scheme where more older people are going to require long-term care. One would factor that in. One would come up with a set of estimations across the major budget headings. That sounds like a very technical exercise and there is a lot of technicality to it, but I think it is only proper to reflect back since 2008 on the reality of where we have been, which is that we have faced the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform saying: "It really doesn't matter what the technical calculations are." I am doing them a disservice; we are interested in the technical calculations, but in the final analysis, this is the only money that is available.