Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I thank the Minister for his reply. Does it mean the members of the committee have met the Secretaries General of Departments and chief executives of large spending organisations and have asked for their response on how savings might be made under various headings? Have those Secretaries General and chief executives communicated with the Minister's in charge of the various Departments? In other words, is an bord snip nua getting Secretaries General in various Departments to offer up the cuts they would find more palatable and have the line Ministers been consulted? I know they will be consulted at Government level but this is very important.

With regard to capital expenditure, will the Minister state what is incidental? Does it mean that if the HSE must offer up savings it has implications for building a children's hospital and if so what type of capital implications does it have?

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