Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Let us tease that out a bit further. Mr. Barnes mentioned welfare and pay. When the Government talks about its allocation for next year in terms of existing levels of service, it is not talking about welfare increases. The latter will be provided under the discretionary amounts it has available.

The existing pay deal is included in existing levels of service, but a future pay deal will not be. I understand it will be shy of €1 billion if it were to be accepted for next year, which reduces the amount available for other programmes and policy measures such as social welfare increases significantly. In terms of existing levels of service alone, we understand that is for the running of the Departments of Health and Education and all of the rest. The food bills in our hospitals have gone up. Hospital costs relating to laundry have gone up. Energy costs for hospitals have gone up. The Department has calculated €2.2 billion just to keep all those services going. How appropriate is that figure to maintain existing services as opposed to what the Government might do in social welfare or the pay deal, which will come out of the other €2.7 billion?