Mr. Colm Desmond:

Without looking at the detail of those, there is no doubt that, as I explained in the opening statement, given the base from which they were starting, budgets were challenged for many years. With the demographic demand that started to appear roughly in parallel, it led to the view that coming close to meeting the budget was considered acceptable performance. That is obviously not acceptable in any circumstance. With significantly increased resources we believe these need to be managed within the overall allocation. The Fiscal Advisory Council considers that a hard budget constraint, for example. We need to continue to consider how such resources can be managed more effectively. If the trend is there, the trend merits examination. That is part of the performance and accountability process and the financial examination process I described. The Chairman has reasonably identified that issue, which will be a key issue for the HSE in 2019.