Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 27 September 2023

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Let us deal with the other known unknown, for want of a better expression. I am referring to the health overrun. We will require a Supplementary Estimate for the health budget this year. I am not going to go into the rights or wrongs of that. I am just dealing with how we are accounting for this. For 2024, I assume that a portion of the health overrun for this year is recurring and needs to be factored into the base. Is that assumption wrong? If it is the case, does it have to come out of the €2 billion or is there already some of that in the base? If it is not the case, will the Minister give us an indication, even in the range of €250 million, because that is unfortunately the scale of what we are hearing in terms of the health overrun? We heard from Mr. Bernard Gloster that it could be €1.1 billion by the end of the year. That does not necessarily mean that it will be repeated in 2024. Can the Minister give any indication to the committee of how much of that needs to be provided for in 2024?