Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 October 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion

9:00 am

Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

Yes and it was set out in the service plan. The figure was €120 million which was described as corporate type expenditure, whether it took place in hospitals, the community or the central corporate area. They are savings that should not impact on services. We have reviewed a figure of about €1.2 billion to look at opportunities to identify savings. In some cases, there are potential savings, some of which would take a number of years to achieve, in areas such as printing and postage and a load of corporate type overheads. In respect of the figure of €346 million, the balance was €150 million for a jointly governed programme between us and the Department of Health. It was specified as being longer term and higher level in terms of what it was seeking to do. It was not just about efficiencies, which is what the middle piece was about. It was about considering how we could reshape the system. Typically, it would take a number of years to achieve.

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