Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is true to say that a number of Departments are consistently under profile as well as consistently over profile, with the Department of Health being the biggest. With regard to the health budget, the Minister said he has increased expenditure for next year to ensure that does not happen again. That is welcome. He is plugging the hole. How much of that was recurring spending? I am concerned that we have €1 billion of an increase in the health budget for next year and much of that was based on the windfall that we got from corporation receipts. If that is not the case, maybe the Minister can clarify that. I am concerned that we may not have those windfalls next year. It is not prudent to use once-off windfalls to plug a hole in recurring spending every year. Will the Minister confirm levels of recurring spending?

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