Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Minister's point that there is a new director general of the HSE and that he is sent a circular that everything needs to be brought back into budget. The question for the Minister and the Government is what direction they are going to take. We are halfway through the year. By the end of April there was an overspend of €116 million. Let us assume that this increased in May and June at the same rate. This would bring us broadly up to €140 million. On the current trend and if things continue as they are, we would be looking at an overspend of several hundred million euro. At a political level - and accepting that everybody will do everything they can to live within the budget - if the HSE comes back and states that the overspend will still be €150 million, €250 million or €350 million, will the Minister instruct it to do what is required to find the necessary savings in order to come in on budget or will he come back to the House with a Supplementary Estimate?

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