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

There are serious questions which need to be answered and we are not getting the answers. For instance, we now know that in April an assistant secretary in the Department of Health made a request for an interim report to be forwarded to Government in respect of the escalating costs. In May she again asked for a report to be sent to Government in respect of these escalating costs. The minutes show that she asked for this to be done prior to the budgetary process taking place. We now know that the figure of €391 million was, to use the term used by the Secretary General yesterday, "crystallised" and known on 19 September. Despite this, nobody seems to have told the Minister or the Minister for Health what the figure was until after the budget. If that is the case, I put it to the Minister that there have been serious breakdowns in communication between the most senior officials in the Department of Health and the Minister and within the Minister's Department. He was not able to get that information from the Department of Health when discussing a black hole of €600 million or €700 million in current expenditure. Which is it?

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