Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 354: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the overspend by her Department and the health boards for the years 1998 to 2005 inclusive; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3369/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Department of Health and Children Vote surrendered a surplus to the Exchequer for each of the years 1998 to 2005. The following table sets out the amounts surrendered in each year.

Under public financial procedures, any sums received over and above the amount voted by the Dáil for appropriations-in-aid must be surrendered at year end to the Exchequer.

For the years 1998 to 2004, inclusive, the terms of the 1996 accountability legislation applied to health boards. This required health boards to transfer a deficit or a surplus for the preceding year to the following year.

The variance arising in each of the years is set out in the following table. However, in respect of the years 1998 and 1999, figures are not immediately available but I am making arrangements to provide the Deputy with the information as a matter of urgency.

The Health Act 2004 provided for the establishment of the Health Service Executive with effect from 1 January 2005. The HSE was established with its own Vote, Vote 40, and the provisional outturn for that Vote for 2005, which is subject to review and probable change, is as follows: