-----in some aspects of mental health, without question, as we witnessed with the County Kerry child and adolescent mental health services and in other areas as well.

No, they are not political targets.

First, in terms of the transcript that was published, I was not there and do not understand the context, tone or whatever. Not all the material in it was accurate. Politicians did not set recruitment figures at all.

We did not set any recruitment figures.

Will the Deputy let me answer the question? The transcript, or contributions within the transcript, suggested we did.

I will answer if the Deputy lets me answer.

For example, the HSE came forward last year, not politicians, with a figure of 16,000. It was presented to a health committee meeting: the HSE said it would recruit 16,000 in 2021. This year, when it initially made its bid, it said it would recruit 10,000. Its HR team is now saying that, given the current labour market situation, it could be 5,500 net but it will try to trump that. Discussions are now under way between the Department of Health and the HSE in respect of utilising the funding that will not be used fo…

The HSE looked for approximately €35 million, including €24 million for new developments and €13 million for existing level of service, ELS, provision.

It got €37 million. An additional €10 million was added because everybody in this House was saying we need to do something in regard to the mental health impacts of Covid-19.

We responded to that and allocated a further €10 million, which should be within the capacity of the health service and the HSE to spend and distribute.

I just gave the Deputy the figure the HSE is saying.

I did.

We provided €650 million in the budget to reduce the USC and tax, a move which the Deputy opposed. I would also make the point that he is against property tax. He is against carbon tax. He is against the USC. He is meant to be left wing. How are we going to fund the services?

How are we going to invest in education, health and housing? How are we going to do that? The Deputy is far more populist than he is left wing. He is in one of the few left-wing groups in Europe that opposes all of those taxes and that does not believe that we need to broaden our tax revenue base to support workers-----

-----and people on low incomes and to invest in housing, health, education and childcare. We cannot do it. Some €4.5 billion comes in through the USC. If we just simply abolish it, we will not have the resources to invest in childcare, to invest in education and health and so on.

I genuinely put that to Deputy Boyd Barrett. I just do not understand where he is going to generate the revenue base that would create those billions.

Wages will rise in the next number of years. The Central Bank is predicting that wage rises will outpace price increases over the next three years, despite the spike in inflation this year. From the public service perspective, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, arrived at an agreement with the public service unions last year on the national pay agreement, which allowed for increases. We will maintain our engagement and contact with the unions on the issue of wages, wage increase…

We acknowledge that. This is because the Government cannot cover everything. There have been two years where the Government has invested to an unprecedented extent into our economy. It was unprecedented that the Government would underpin what had to be done. It was right that we did it because of the pandemic. However, this cannot go on forever; we cannot continue to fund every enterprise in the country through the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, or the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS, forever. That w…

The Deputy is wrong. We are not talking about looting anyone or any workers.

A €630 million package of income tax and universal social charge reductions was brought in in the last budget and the Deputy opposed it. That is what we did in the last budget. We brought that in.