Mr. Seamus Coffey:

To go back to what my colleague, Mr. Tutty, said in response to an earlier question, we would like to see increased monitoring and assessment of spending, particularly in health, as we progress through the year. At the moment a formal figure about the likely overrun does not come out until October but within two or three months of a new year, there should be information available that would allow a dynamic estimate of the expected spending amount for the year. We should have information on the level of spending and the level of likely overrun as we progress through the year. We should know whether it is on, below or above target. We would agree with Deputy Pearse Doherty's view that there should be increased monitoring and an increase in the information made available. Health is by far the largest spending area and within net voted spending, it will reach €17 billion next year. It is pretty clear that the overruns in recent years have a systematic pattern to them. Improved monitoring is required and if the information is not currently being collected, efforts should be made to collect it. We would like to see, if possible, dynamic assessments of those overruns as we progress through the year.