Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The Minister for Finance promised an explanation by the end of February. This has now been postponed until the end of March and we are still no wiser on what the sum of €56 million was spent on, besides what leaks to newspapers suggest. It appears to have been spent on current spending, which means the capital budget for the HSE is 10% less than what had been planned on budget day. We have no indication whether the sum will be made good. Presumably, those sharp accountants in the HSE are still looking for the money.

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