Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for that general reply. He confirmed there will be savings of €300 million this year and in regard to the Croke Park agreement, now the Haddington Road agreement, that serious savings are targeted for the health services in particular. I know the Minister will say that savings are a fraction under budget but there seems to be underlining trends in that cost savings have not been fully agreed and there seems to be a breakdown in the overall management of the HSE finances in that figures are coming in on a region by region basis but not adequately on an overall basis. Some funding last year could not be accounted for in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report in terms of where overruns occurred. The Minister might be able to tell us if there will be a Supplementary Estimate for the health area as a result of the Haddington Road agreement not being implemented in full in the course of this year.

The Minister expressed his support for the Minister, Deputy Quinn but I hope he would agree with me that his opening remarks following the ASTI vote, when he spoke about the issue of compulsory redundancies, were at best most unhelpful.

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