Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The sum of just under €200 million is for new service developments. It is not for pensions. That is separate funding. We are ring-fencing the money specially and holding it back in the Department of Health to make sure the money is spent on what it is intended for and not lost in some deficit elsewhere. I refer to things like, for example, the extra €10 million for respite funding, the additional 190 beds in acute hospitals that have already been opened this winter and also the additional €750 million for home care.

Of course we should set aside funding for new drugs and that is a service improvement.

There is one thing on which I will agree with Deputy Martin. I would like to see more transparency around the health budget. Deputy Martin mentioned in his question that the increase in our health funding is going to be €413 million ahead of the outturn last year. Even now, that is only a projection. We actually do not know how much the health service spent last year. We will not know until April how much the HSE spent last year. Even when a person is looking for transparency and that person is sitting where I or the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, is sitting, the financial systems are so outdated and badly organised in our health service that it is April before the person knows how much was spent last year. We are going to need a major investment, first in information technology to have a proper financial system, and second in capacity to have people who are able to manage and follow budgets. That is something that is going to change.

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