Mr. Robert Watt:

At this stage, we do not have a specific figure in mind, given the uncertainty in and difficulty of this type of exercise. Initially, the focus will be on the acute side. There are three main spending areas there, the first of which is staff. Mr. Gloster touched upon the developments in that regard. Obviously, people are employed, there is overtime and there are agency staff. We are examining the various elements of that to see whether we can make changes that could take cash out while sustaining and improving services. The second area in the acute hospital system is the medicines budget. I believe it amounts to €700 million or €800 million. There are issues around usage and pricing as well as overlapping issues with the budget of the PCRS. Third, a variety of non-pay and non-medicine budgets are required to fund hospitals – power and heat, food, surgical services, consumables, etc. We are working through each of the areas and trying to establish the extent to which we can examine opportunities to save, be it better pricing, better stock management or better utilisation of consumables. It is right across the board.

As Mr. Gloster stated, this year’s budget is challenging. We have to provide services as best we can at the lowest possible cost. Whatever financial deficit might occur needs to be kept as low as possible. That is the mandate we have been given by the Government and that is what we are trying to do.