Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I refuse to accept that the Taoiseach is so ignorant of the budgetary process that he believes what he just said to me. Of course virement can happen after the solemn decision of this House but accurate figures have to be presented to this House in the Book of Estimates for constitutional reasons because the Government has no money at all to spend until the Estimates are voted upon.

If the Taoiseach was aware that the provision allocated to the Department of Health was not true – he admitted himself that he was aware of that when this Revised Estimate was presented by the Minister, Deputy Bruton, on 17 December last – then that was an inaccurate presentation in defiance of his constitutional duty. That is a clear fact.

Yesterday I asked about Directive 2014/24/EU, on public procurement and the Taoiseach spoke about giving people advance notice. Has he had an opportunity since I raised that yesterday to take advice from the Attorney General? Will the Taoiseach assure the House that the contract awarded to build the national children's hospital is in full compliance with that directive?

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