Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The fact of the matter is that there was a crisis period through January, February and into early March. The report to which I referred states very clearly that while a more realistic budget for acute services was provided in 2015, it was not possible to provide a budget at the full level of the 2014 spend. The Minister is very happy to speak in terms of what was allocated at the outset of 2014, but he is completely ignoring the reality in terms of the additionality which had to be provided to meet the real cost o the provision of acute hospital services through 2014. The report clearly states final expenditure levels for 2014 mean that costs in acute hospitals need to be reduced by approximately 1.2% to 1.4% below 2014 expenditure levels and pay and that other cost pressures must also be dealt with. These will result in a likely cost reduction in 2015 of approximately 2% to 2.5%.

See this speech in context