Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government is not withholding €25 million from the HSE. The full €55 million that was an order of Government was made available to the HSE to spend. There is a process under which the Department releases the funding as it is needed. The Department does not merely throw the €55 million onto the table and say, "Spend that." It is released as it is being spent and that is the process to which the Deputy refers.

There is not an issue with withholding funding. Some of it relates to recurring expenditure and one-off expenditure.

A sum of €12 million remains to be spent. We still have two and a half months of the year to spend that. I am meeting the HSE and the Department of Health next week to further oversee the expenditure. When the Deputy referred to ministerial oversight, I have overseen the expenditure of that funding, and, indeed, of the entire €1 billion budget, over the past 12 months.

Regarding his issue about rehabilitation and the MHC report, I will refer to it in a later response.

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