Mr. Robert Watt:

That is a policy decision. The Government decided as things were improving and as we were well below our deficit targets, we would use some of the money to enhance capital. We saw that response in the storm that took place in 2014, when there was an allocation across a variety of different heads.

Of course, there are challenges in a number of different Votes. Overall, our record has been quite good over the past five years on managing expenditure. The vast majority of Votes, as I believe has been set out in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, stay at or below profile. However, issues clearly arise over Army pensions and the Garda. There are significant issues associated with the HSE. We are aware that the establishment of budgets and budget execution need to get better.

With the HSE over recent years, a large proportion of the increases have been on the basis of policy decisions the Government has taken each year requiring additional resources. Other factors relate to our ability or inability to forecast demand, be it in the hospital system or through medical card or GMS payments. Therefore, there is a real challenge associated with forecasting demand and managing spending within the health system. This is a challenge faced not only by Ireland but also by other countries. We talk to colleagues in OECD countries and they talk about budget issues, budget execution and budget planning. The health system comprises the one issue across all publicly funded health systems in respect of which it is very difficult to forecast demand, set Estimates and stay within budget. This is an ongoing challenge. That is the process.