Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I do not want to get into a spat about this but that is completely unacceptable. The Minister has a unit within his Department that monitors health spending. The fact that the Minister cannot tell the Committee on Budgetary Oversight whether there is €1 billion or €500 million overspend that needs to be provided again next year is not acceptable. I think the Minister has an indication and, if not, I would worry for the budgetary process that only 13 days from the budget, the Minister does not know whether the overspend that will be repeated next year will be €250 million, €500 million or €1 billion.

Regarding the national development plan and capital expenditure, the Minister will be aware that the Central Bank recently published an article about managing the public finances in a full employment economy. It noted:

Combining the effect of downward revisions to nominal General Government capital expenditure along with the impact of higher than expected inflation, the level of real public investment from 2022-2025 is now projected to be €3 billion lower per annum on average than had been expected in 2021.

The Central Bank is saying that we are €3 billion lower in terms of real capital expenditure compared with what was planned and the target of 5% of GNI* is not going to be reached. It now stands at 4.2%. Given that even though the nominal figure has increased, real public investment is now lower than was expected, is there not now a real need to increase capital expenditure way beyond the €250 million the Minister is talking about? Real public investment is projected to be €3 billion lower per annum on average than was expected just two years ago.