Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Minister says that control of the budget is a matter for the Minister for Health, which is true, but the issue is the size of the allocation which is, in effect, determined by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. It is the quantum of the allocation that we are talking about and it is the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform which decides that. Just in the past week, Mr. Bernard Gloster made it very clear that two significant elements of increased spending within the Department refer to areas over which nobody has any control. The first is inflation, including inflation in the cost of cleaning, energy and food. For example, the new contract for energy represents an increase of 85% on last year. The second element is unforeseen demand because of delays during the Covid years. Does the Minister accept those two reasons for increased spending and that nobody had any control over those elements?

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