Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----we have reduced the Drug Payment Scheme costs; and we have introduced publicly funded Assisted Human Reproduction.

Budget 2024 continues the very high level of investment in our public health system by providing for a total allocation of €22.5 billion. This includes an €808 million increase in core current funding to address the demographic and service pressures that we know are there.

I am also allocating non-core resources of over €1 billion for Covid and Ukraine spending in the health sector. This will facilitate continued investment in public health measures, including of course our successful vaccination programme.

It also includes further temporary resources beyond those announced in the Summer Economic Statement to fund the post pandemic escalation in demand and activity across our acute hospitals through a Health Resilience Fund.

The value of this record level of health investment needs to be fully realised with a focus on productivity, on governance and how we can consolidate our funding capacity.

Accordingly, this will be accompanied by a programme of initiatives to improve financial oversight across the health system, as part of our reform agenda. This work will be complete by the end of the year.

The Government remains committed to reducing waiting lists in our hospital and community services. This Budget will fund a range of measures to reduce waiting times for inpatient care, and to improve access to community diagnostics.

We will continue our targeted recruitment of additional staff. We will do this to enhance capacity across a range of acute hospital and community settings as well as our surgical hubs. We will continue the reform measures to progress the regionalisation of our health service to make it even more responsive to each patient’s needs.

I am also ensuring increased supports across our community services through additional funding for mental health services – noting that today is world mental health day, social inclusion services, older people, and health and well-being initiatives are therefore so important.

€1.23 billion is being provided as part of the National Development Plan for the delivery of additional health infrastructure to enhance the wider sustainability of our health services.

FURTHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION, RESEARCH, INNOVATION AND SCIENCE

Looking to the future and looking again to the role of education, investing in further and higher education, in innovation and in creativity is our future. In 2024, I am committed to allocating over €4.1 billion to these sectors.

Reflecting their vital role in our economic success, I am providing €60 million to address the sustainable funding of Higher Education, as set out in Funding the Future, as well as additional funding for greater capacity in medicine places.

I am also providing additional supports to allow greater access for students already attending third-level education, including increases in the Maintenance Grant rates, the restoration of maintenance grants to eligible postgraduate students on a similar basis to undergraduates and improvements to the thresholds for maintenance and student contribution grants, from September.

In 2024, I am providing €67 million for the Craft Apprenticeship scheme to over 16,000 places next year. This is to help us do better with regard to our climate challenges. It is to help us do better in building more homes.

I also want to turn briefly to the National Training Fund. It plays a vital funding role in how we future-proof the skills needs of the labour market and ensure workers can readily access lifelong learning opportunities.

I am keen to ensure the fund is used in an effective and sustainable way. It is in surplus because of the combination of increases in employers’ PRSI and the number of people at work in our country. At the same time, there are funding needs for Higher Education but meeting those needs is always inside the parameters of each budget. I want to re-examine this to find a way of better meeting these needs.

To that end, officials will bring forward options, including legislative changes for the future operation of the fund.

We will do this because a highly educated workforce creates the investments, creates the ability that we need to support our country and to create an enterprising and productive economy.

ENTERPRISE

This sector is the lynchpin to our economic growth, to our future well-being and to prosperity.

This is why, as a Government, we have invested heavily to protect enterprises through the challenges of Brexit, of Covid and of the consequences of the energy crisis. The fruits, the consequences of this support can be seen across a range of economic measures, not least the fact that over 2.6 million people now work in Ireland.

As I mentioned earlier, a €250 million package of temporary supports will be developed to support businesses through the current challenges associated with the Cost of Living.

Today, in addition to this, I am allocating an additional €35 million to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. This money is in conjunction with the existing resources available to the Department to allow it to do the following:

• €9 million for our local enterprise offices - these are the hubs for enterprise creation and business start-ups in local towns and communities, and this money will allow them to extend their supports and extend their mentoring programmes to a wider cohort of local businesses;
• €3 million for the Digital Services Coordinator to support enforcement of the Digital Services Act, and
• An increase in the IDA’s capital allocation of €27 million to accelerate its Regional Property Grants Programme, to ensure balanced regional inward investments.

DELIVERING ON THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

This is because a better connected, a more regionally balanced Ireland is at the heart of our National Development Plan. It is a blueprint for building a more sustainable and forward looking country. Today, I am providing an additional €900 million in 2024 for essential investment in more schools, more and better hospital infrastructure and for better public and road transport.

Today also marks the first Budget since my Department took the mandate of accelerating delivery of the National Development Plan. That is why I have amended the Public Works Contract. It is why I have developed new Infrastructure Guidelines, which will be published in the coming weeks, to ease the administrative burden of approving National Development Plan projects.

An independent evaluation of these priorities and capacity of the National Development Plan will soon inform the delivery of priorities. This is also why a time-limited fund to accelerate key priority capital project over the years 2024-2026 will also be provided, funded by windfall Corporate Tax receipts.

The Minister for Finance has already spoken about how the establishment of long-term savings funds will help with the investment of some of these receipts, which is why the infrastructure, climate and nature fund is so important. It will protect our investment and protect our capital expenditure in the event of an economic downturn, enabling continued investment in large projects that can drive growth.

CLIMATE ACTION

A further plan, the climate action plan will deliver positive change for our climate while improving the lives of communities all over Ireland.

ENERGY

Accelerating the green transition is the best way of protecting the security of our energy supplies, breaking our dependency on imports and protecting our people from fossil fuel price shocks. Ireland is already number one in the world for the share of electricity demand met by onshore wind.

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