Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I think we can assume the Supplementary Estimate will be very significant indeed based on the information that is in the public domain at present. I think everybody in this House, or at least a very significant number of Deputies in this House, and indeed experts would be of the view that the Minister must re-examine the planned expenditure in health for next year. That is very clear. Quite frankly, I say to the Minister that he owes it to the 900,000 people who are on waiting lists who will inevitably suffer. The Minister for Health got his defence in first prior to the budget when he made it very clear that what the Government was prepared to provide to him in an Estimate for next year would not be sufficient. We are very clear on what the HSE chief executive has also said. Will the Minister, therefore, reopen that element of the budgetary process?

The Minister did say he did not want to get into a war of words with the Minister for Health or with anybody else about the health budget but it is the Dáil which passes the Estimate. The Minister is a serious politician, he takes his responsibilities seriously, he is accountable to the Dáil, and the Dáil has a very significant job of work to do constitutionally to pass an Estimate. An Estimate which is a fictitious one should not be presented to this Dáil as it is entirely inadequate to meet the health service needs for next year.

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