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

Every effort is made to ensure that we have credible Estimates that I can present to the Oireachtas at the end of each year. A huge amount of engagement happens with all Departments about this. With a small number of exceptions, the Estimates put forward to the Oireachtas for Departments tend to be either exactly met or, at times, come under profile. I know this is the subject of engagement within the Joint Committee on Health and I acknowledge that for the Department of Health this year, the difference between projected and actual expenditure is very different to what it was last year. This is not a matter that we can normalise moving into next year and that is why we have made such efforts to put in place such a large increase in health expenditure for 2019. As the Deputy is aware, the projected Estimate for health for next year takes much of the expenditure for this year, puts it into the base and builds on that again to deal with all the service needs and overhead costs.

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