Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-05-28 ============================================================ Ged Nash (LAB), Louth It is important that the Opposition keeps the Government honest on public spending. It is important too that reliable figures are given to the Opposition ahead of the annual budget so we know exactly what it costs to fund education, health and other important services. That has not been the case in recent years. We need to know exactly what it costs to fund existing services, the extra money that is needed to keep the show on the road and what money is needed for new measures. We in Labour believe honest politics means keeping the Opposition honest too. Last year the Department of public expenditure and reform refused to give out these demographic costs or information as to what it would take to maintain existing levels of service. We were met with triangulation and obfuscation. We ask every year how much is needed to meet the growing needs in special education. In budget 2026 we were sold a pup but, more importantly, so were the very families and children who need that support. Weeks ago we were told of an astonishing €646 million black hole in the Department of education. How did the Tánaiste and his colleagues get budget 2026 so badly wrong? What is the Government's answer? A levy, effective cuts by another name, in 2027 to every Department's budget, even before pre-budget talks open. Getting direct answers from various Ministers over the past few weeks on how this will work has been like pulling teeth. What do we know? We know that the Minister for Health, for example, has said in replies to me that she will have to find €175 million in savings to plug the hole in education. This is on top of the fact that the HSE has overspent to the tune of €250 million in the early part of this year alone. Taken in the round, then, as we speak, the Department of Health and the HSE are now on the hook for at least €425 million this year and next. The Government says that pay in health will remain untouched. That will be the case for the Department of justice as well. Which services, then, will be cut or scaled back? Which planned new services will be stalled? All of us who are health service users have a right to know. It is more money, not less, that our under-pressure health services need, and there is a limit to the efficiencies and reforms that can be extracted from a service that is already under very significant pressure. The problem is that the Minister, Deputy Chambers, has put a deadline of 17 July on Departments coming back to him with their cost-cutting proposals. I am no conspiracy theorist, but that is the day after the Dáil rises - zero accountability from this Government over the summer on the kinds of cuts we will see next year. Will the Tánaiste commit to giving us honest figures on demographic costs and the cost of maintaining existing levels of service this year and next? Will he confirm that there will be no further asks through significant supplementary budgets being brought to the House this year for various Government Departments? I directly ask him the following question and I expect a response. What kinds of cuts does he feel need to take place in health to fund the costs in education? --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-28/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-28