Mr. Colm Desmond:

The Vote for the health service is one of the biggest. There is a scale of funding available to the Government each year which it must allocate in several big priority areas. We have to live within the overall resources provided for us. That is a discipline that the Minister accepts and, as he pointed out yesterday, when the issue was raised in respect of the view of the HSE on a potential significant financial challenge, the plan service was required to be framed legally within the budget provided for the HSE and that is what it proceeded to do. There are areas which may, as I mentioned in the opening statement and to which Mr. Mulvany alluded, to some extent be unpredictable. Therefore, it is very challenging within the overall process to cater for the very substantial demands which increase year on year in the major service driven areas. I agree fully with the Deputy that it is a challenge and something which, as the Minister said yesterday, is embedded within the performance and planning process under which the HSE manages and for which it is held to account. Once the HSE had identified certain issues, the Minister pointed to the requirement under legislation for the HSE to produce the service plan that was provided for this year.