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

The Minister indicated that an informal balance was reached behind the scenes between savings from jobseeker's allowance and expenditure in other areas, but this was not made clear in the published documentation. That is probably the reason for the fiscal advisory council's analysis. I do not think anyone believes €200 million will be adequate for health in light of our ageing population. Supplementary Estimates are introduced annually for sums in the order of €600 million. The fiscal advisory council pointed out that the old age dependency ratio, that is, the population aged over 70 years in proportion to the working age population, is expected to rise by 2% by 2020 and to continue rising thereafter. That is one of the most significant issues that have to be taken into account. It is not just a question of pensions because there are implications for the health budget and demographic pressures. There is insufficient transparency in the document in terms of spelling out those details.

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