Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am reading from the ESRI report from 2020, so there are updated figures. It is a study in regard to Ireland's healthcare in international terms. I am sure Mr. Moloney is familiar with this, or maybe his colleague is. It says Ireland's total healthcare expenditure as a share of national income ranks first in the EU 15. That is what Mr. Moloney said. Obviously across the EU it would be no different because we are talking about eastern European if we take in all EU countries. It says Ireland's healthcare expenditure per capita, if adjusted for relative price, ranks ninth in the EU 15. It is now ranked 11th with updated data. It actually says that Ireland's rankings for public and private expenditures are quite different. As a share of national income Ireland for public expenditure ranks fifth, and when adjusted for relative prices it ranks ninth. It is now 11th, based on newer data which the Minister put on the record. However, even with that information, it goes on to say that this still is not clear because Ireland includes payments to family carers in healthcare expenditure and it comprises 4.3% of all healthcare expenditure. It says a majority of ten of EU 15 countries do not include social care expenditure in healthcare expenditure, while Ireland allocates all of it. Therefore, this is a misrepresentation of fact because it creates the impression that we are talking about public investment in healthcare. When private healthcare is stripped off, it is clear that is not the case that we have not the highest expenditure in Europe. When you look at it per capita,adjusted for relative prices, we are eleventh. It could even be a lot worse because we include expenditure in social care which ten of the other 15 European countries do not include when they are comparing with us.

I could have taken any one of those lines and said this is where Ireland ranks, but Mr. Moloney did not qualify this at all because this is a suggestion that Ireland is well-funded in terms of our healthcare but the Minister is right, and it is not often I would say the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, is right, when he says when we compare ourselves to western European countries, which is a fair thing to do, there are ten other European countries out of 15 that spend moreper capita on healthcare than we do. Why is that important? That is important because in this context the Government has made a conscious decision to underfund health on a massive scale. This is not small amount, or a couple of hundred million euro here or there. We are talking about billions of euro. What was needed was about €2.4 billion. The HSE got about €708 million and a bit of a one-off. The consequences of this will be dire. It is not acceptable.

Mr. Moloney can accept or reject the points I made in terms of his presentation of the expenditure. Will he provide a detailed note in regard to how his Minister, himself and his Department agreed that the existing levels of services for the health service next year would be €708 million, breaking it down in terms of the components? Will he add a note explaining to us how the Department of Health and the HSE have got their numbers so wrong?