evidence: Dr Farry: Finally, I will concentrate on health. The Minister has acted like the grand old Duke of York — marching us to the top of the hill and back down again — in his campaign for proper National Health Service funding in Northern Ireland. For the sake of a facade of unity in the Executive, he seems to have settled for much less than what is required to maintain a level of healthcare that is on a par with the rest of the United Kingdom. In order to keep pace with funding in the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland requires a health budget of at least £4·4 billion, and, to maintain the same level of service, the revised Budget leaves a health funding shortfall of £200 million. The DUP can talk all it wants about record Health Service funding, but the simple fact is that we are not keeping pace with the rest of the UK. [...] We should not underestimate the scale of what we have achieved, especially in the wider UK public expenditure context in which the package was secured. Although we would have liked to have achieved more — and what Executive would not? — negotiations with the Treasury have paid dividends. The Member for North Down said that we promised a £1 billion package and that we had failed to deliver. He is right; we have failed to deliver a £1 billion package — we have delivered a package that is worth more than £2 billion.