Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Health was not short about being able to predict accurately and speedily that the moneys allocated in October would fall well short of what will be required in the system. I am concerned about the new rules that will apply from 2016. In response to an earlier question, the Minister said he and the Government will regard the expenditure benchmark as binding on the State, as it is on all others. There is another school of thought within the European Commission that says the benchmark is simply a policy instrument and it is indicative and not binding in the way the Minister suggests.

I am concerned on two fronts - first, he will succumb to the notion that this is binding and, therefore, he must follow every detail of it; and, second, the effect that will undoubtedly have on the capacity of any future Government to introduce Supplementary Estimates. The Minister was quite glib when he said that as a matter of course we can meet all the additional spending and social pressures. If the benchmark is set at the 0.5% structural deficit limit, he will not have that discretion, which is worrying, not least at a time he is heralding the end of austerity in his own words.

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