Ciaran Hancock

I suppose the good news for this year, at least, is that the government, we talk about kiddies, and the government has a very large, substantial surplus for this year projected, £9 billion, as opposed to a previous forecast of £5 billion.

That's an extraordinary increase, isn't it?

It is.

How do we keep doing it, first of all?

But also...

Look, it gives them a lot of headroom in terms of providing supports.

You know, as the year unfolds, we'll see how it plays out in terms of energy prices and so forth in the war in the Middle East.

But how much longer can we continue to do this?

So Cliff, are you a glass half full man or a glass half empty?

Well, Simon Harris has been making this very point over the past few days.

Even if the war ended tomorrow, the effects of it are still going to be felt into the winter.

You don't believe that.

And it's usually followed by IFAC coming out with an assessment of how government spending is out of control.

Yeah.

I think Paschal was Paschal Dunahoo's nickname, and yet spending was... It was.

Yeah, I'm sure in terms of health spending, I'm sure there have been improvements in certain areas of health and treatments and so forth.

Anybody who's been through those will appreciate it.

Absolutely.

But if you look in the overall, most people would say that the health system here is dysfunctional.

It's inefficient.