Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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I thank Mr. Devane. I was just curious about the number of years.

I turn now to the important issue of budgeting in the HSE and the experience last year when the organisation seemed to have been engaged in deficit budgeting. This issue was highlighted by the chair of the audit and risk committee, who subsequently resigned over the fact that some €2 billion of proposed services were not funded in the service plan. To a large extent, he was proven right at the end of the year when there was a need for a substantial supplementary budget. Is it not likely that the same thing will happen this year? We do not have the exact detail concerning the split between the Department's deficit and the HSE's deficit, but we were recently told by the Secretary General that in the first four months of this year there has been a deficit of €500 million. In this context, are we not just repeating what happened previously?