Tanaiste Micheal Martin has said funding for Ireland’s health services “needs examination”, amid criticism levelled at the government over the amount of money given for next year.
The funding allocated to health services next year has prompted criticism of the government, and has seen a recruitment freeze implemented on some healthcare roles.
Chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE) Bernard Gloster told senior management on Friday that he was extending an existing recruitment pause beyond clerical and management grades to include patient and client care roles.
He also announced an immediate pause on around 7,000 posts, previously approved in principle, which can now not be funded.
Representatives of healthcare workers have sharply criticised the freeze as reckless and risky, and opposition politicians have called on the budget for the Department of Health to be re-examined.
Budget 2024, worth a total of 14 billion euro and unveiled last Tuesday, allocated an extra 800 million euro to the Department of Health, bringing its total value to 22.5 billion euro.
The additional 808 million to core funding is to address an ageing population and service pressures, with more than one billion euro in non-core funding allocated to ongoing Covid-19 measures.
Mr Gloster has said that he needs a further 1.5 billion for this year alone.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said that the majority of this year’s overspend was due to more patients presenting for emergency treatment and inflated prices for medicines.
“We can’t kid ourselves. The additional spending by the HSE forecast for this year at about 1.5 billion euro is largely being driven by the fact they are treating more patients than we have funded them to treat,” the Fianna Fail TD said.
Asked about the issue on Monday, Micheal Martin said that there had been “very significant” investment in health over the past few years.
The Fianna Fail leader said that seven billion euro in additional funding had been allocated to the health service in three years.
He added: “I heard the term recruitment freeze… the issue in the growth for example is that, given the money already allocated, the HSE has not recruited staff even from the existing basis of funding over the last while in critical services, particularly in disability, for example.
“Some of that is due to genuine difficulties in recruiting, the same would have happened in terms of homecare over the last two years where there was challenges because we’ve expanded the services so much in the homecare area.
“So we will work through the funding of health, but the scale of allocation in the last number of years has been very very significant.
“We will work with the HSE but the HSE also will have to work with government, and as I said yesterday, (there) has to be deeper analysis of health spending, parallel with analysis of growing demographics, we’re ageing as a population.
“That has implications, yes, in terms of pressure on health services but funding has dramatically increased.
“1.8 billion euro this year, additional increase to health services, and if you look over the last three years I think you’re looking at 7 billion additional to health.”
“So the issue needs examination. Government will continue to work on that with the relevant ministers,” he said while opening the Joe and Helen O’Toole Community Nursing Unit in Tuam, Co Galway.
