Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I sympathise with Deputy Stanton because it is very difficult to make head or tail of the Minister's reply.

Concerning the revised programme in July, the Minister said that although the HSE had expected to spend €50 million it had been slow in spending and had cut that figure back to €30 million. He said that he had put in a saving of €17 million into his July savings Estimate in respect of disability. In the budget he stated that he would expand it by €10 million. How are we expected to follow these figures? It appears to me that €7 million is missing.

The Minister also stated that he asked everyone to cut back by 3%. Surely there are people in the Department of Finance, not in the OPW, who look at the detailed budgets of each Department. That is what they used to do. The Minister does not appear to have an answer, however, as to how the detailed budget review is operating. Can he explain that?

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