Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I did not think anyone could confuse me even more; fair play to the Minister of State. What he is saying in his response is that the HSE, through its planning process, determined the need for savings. Therefore, it identified the need itself. The Minister of State will appreciate that is not exactly what the HSE said to me, but that is fine. It was stated the targets were not hit because of the winter surge. That happens every year, yet it surprised those responsible. They were also surprised by the flu and the storms. Perhaps it is fair enough to have been surprised by the storms but I really do not accept the other two reasons. Having made reference to the savings for 2018 and bearing in mind it is now December, the Minister of State said the HSE is now putting in place "appropriate resources across the system to ensure delivery of progress on the programme". I am not a big fan of having to speculate to accumulate but that is essentially what is being done. Money is being put in so the delivery of progress on the programme can be ensured.

This leads me to another question, namely, the question of how much money is involved. The health service did not reach the target of €346 million for reasons I do not accept as valid but those are the reasons given. Consequently, out of some other budget, money now will be provided to the HSE to facilitate it to put in place appropriate resources across the system to ensure delivery of progress on the programme. The end of the Minister of State's reply refers to a multi-year strategic initiative. As these are targeted savings for one year, a multi-year strategic initiative presumably will have multi-annual savings stacked into it. Does the Minister of State understand why I might be a little confused?

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