Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the question. The Government has overseen unprecedented levels of additional investment into our health services in recent years. Funding on a like-for-like basis, excluding disabilities, has risen by €7.4 billion from 2019 to 2024. This is equivalent to an average annual increase of 9% in spending.

This investment has facilitated considerable expansion of the health service workforce and it is expected that moe than 23,000 additional staff will, by the end of this year, have been added since the end of 2019. Furthermore, from a funding perspective, Ireland's health system compares favourably with other EU and OECD states across a number of different comparators, especially given our comparatively young population.

In relation to oversight of health expenditure, there is ongoing engagement between my Department, the Department of Health and the HSE throughout the year, including through the health budget oversight group, HBOG, on which the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery, and Reform, the Department of Health and the HSE are represented. This group normally meets on a monthly basis to monitor health expenditure and staffing. There is also a series of detailed policy engagements during the year with the Department of Health, which feed into budgetary considerations. Similar to other Departments and the agencies and bodies under their remit, it is a matter for the Department of Health to engage with the HSE, as an agency under its remit, ahead of the budget. These engagements and subsequent analysis allow the Department of Health, as the relevant policy Department, to form a view on funding requirements. This is reflected in the Department of Health budget submission to my Department and in the subsequent Estimates negotiations between our respective Departments.

The 2024 Estimates process included an extensive series of meetings between officials in my Department and their Department of Health counterparts. As is the norm in the Estimates process, there were also a number of ministerial bilateral meetings ahead of final Government decision on the expenditure ceiling. Any questions on specific engagements between the Minister for Health and the chief executive of the HSE are best addressed to the Minister for Health. The health budget overall is a matter for the Department of Health.

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