Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It will depend on the reason for the overrun. If one looks at the structure of the summer economic statement, one of the major reasons for carry-over costs is the impact of costs generated in the previous year where there is a reasonable expectation that those costs will carry forward into the next year. We are now documenting that more publicly than has been the case in the past. If the Department of Health, or any other Department, incurs a cost and there is a reasonable expectation that it will carry forward into the next year, it can affect the budget calculations for the following year. That is the answer to the Deputy's question. I am now working with the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, on the drivers of the HSE spending level and seeking to understand forensically what the reasons for it are. As the Deputy knows, we allocated more than €15 billion to the health services for 2018. While the June figures will be published later this evening, expenditure was up 10% at the end of May versus the previous year. The Minister, Deputy Harris, and I are working on the causes of this.

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