Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister, the Ministers of State and the officials for attending.

There are just a couple of things that come to mind. It would appear that a better picture is emerging in the context of funding for health service that will lead to improvements for consumers right across the country. That is to be welcomed.

How did the underspends to which the Minister referred come about? Did they affect areas where there was an obvious need and could the moneys involved have been used effectively somewhere else in anticipation of the fact that underspends were going to occur? In other words, could the people responsible not have said that it was likely that the funds in question were not going to be needed and asked if, with the permission of the Minister or whomever, they could be transferred elsewhere?