Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
Consideration and Implications of 2024 Health Services Funding: Discussion
Mr. Robert Watt:
I think those numbers refer to the expenditure that has taken place already to date. We are going to look at contracts, procurement strategies and stock management to see if there are ways in which we can save, for example, by more efficiently producing waste and getting better deals. That is a difficult and slow process. It is hard to envisage hundreds of millions in savings from that but the CEO is committed to doing that. We will push ahead with it. It is difficult in the non-pay area.
This year the inflationary environment is very different. We are seeing energy prices, not just energy inflation, slowing down. Rather than not going up by as much, we are actually seeing prices starting to fall so that could help with the situation next year.