Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Was the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children serious when she stated in her speech that there is a gross saving of €4.5 million rather than a non-capital spend of €56 million, a figure which, incidentally, was given to the Dáil in November when the Estimates were published just before the budget? She states that, by running the €56 million and the current overspend of €53 million together, she is creating a saving of €4.5 million? She just stated that the distinction between capital and current spending is critical and it would be wrong to confuse them. I put it to her that the spin in her speech is designed to mix them even more than the Taoiseach's syntax. Would she respond to that? As the Department's current expenditure figure is wrong by €53 million and there is a €56 million carryover, is the error in the Department's account nearly €112 million?

In the budget before last, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children will recall that the Minister for Finance's great invention was the 10% capital carryover. She is now playing ducks and drakes with it. It was published in the Estimates and it was confirmed by this House as part of the budget package. Why is the Minister for Finance not sitting beside her to account for his great budget reform of capital carryover permission when she and the HSE have made a shambles of it?

Did somebody in the HSE go to Enron and look at that company's accounting practices because it is precisely this kind of sleight of hand that usually lies at the bottom of financial misrepresentation? The statement the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children made today is a disgrace. It is unworthy of her.

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