Professor Michael McMahon:

We had a discussion with the committee on this before. I am certainly no expert on all the ins and outs of health spending. However, we had predicted these overruns, based on projections for pay, wages and demographics. Ireland is an ageing economy. There is a direct link between demographics and health service usage, particularly in the most acute parts of the health system. We were predicting a large part of this in advance of budget 2024. I think Mr. Conroy has the exact figure.