Mr. Colm Desmond:

I agree to the extent that it is a significant budget, one of the largest in government. It is a challenging budget for everyone to settle, not least for the Ministers for Health and Public Expenditure and Reform. I can reassure the Deputy that the engagement commences early on, takes place in parallel with all other Departments' engagements with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform officials, and is very detailed. It is a significant range of programme areas and by its nature requires a fair degree of interrogation. This year, it was well known that we had an emerging overrun which was significant. That added to the level of detail that had to be engaged with.