Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Will the Leader arrange for the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, to come to the House as a matter of urgency? In recent days we had a commitment by the Minister to savings and cuts of €666 million in the budget for health services provision next year. At the same time, however, he is not in a position to tell us the deficit for this year. That does not inspire confidence. It is particularly worrying in a context where, as I have pointed out many times in recent weeks, increasing numbers of people are losing their medical cards following review. The Minister's Department is expected to find €113 million in savings according to the budget data of recent days, yet nobody is prepared to explain how that figure was reached. Yesterday on radio the Minister gave a vague indication that he got the figure from the Government. It seems to be somewhere in the middle of the €60 million to €200 million predicted by PricewaterhouseCoopers as being the required saving.

The Minister must indicate what impact the required saving of €113 million will have on medical card provision, with specific reference to eligibility criteria. If that saving is not achieved over the course of the year, what is the budget deficit likely to be at the end of next year? We know very little other than the number of the beast - 666 - in terms of the bottom-line figure for savings in 2014. We do not know where those savings will come from or which services will be cut. In fact, we do not even know whether this year's deficit is €100 million, €200 million or €300 million. If the shortfall is larger than currently projected, could we potentially be looking at a savings requirement of up to €1 billion next year? If so, where will the cuts be focused?

Despite the positive editorials and the view that this was a fairly soft budget, the reality is something very uncertain indeed. Even as a relatively healthy person, I am not looking forward to the year ahead in terms of the cuts that will have to be made. There has been clear mismanagement by this Minister, who, by his own admission on radio yesterday, does not know where the figures are coming from other than that he got them from the Government. Is it any wonder the Taoiseach is getting all his other Ministers to look over this particular Minister's shoulder and help him out with his budget?