Seanad debates

Tuesday, 13 May 2003

To make the point, I would have received an extra €1 billion this year in health expenditure compared to last year. It is interesting that in the Estimates around November I received about €690 or €670 million. Between that and the revised volume, which I think was in February, I received an additional €250 million. Senator O'Toole would know where that money went. Less than €150 million went straight into the benchmarking deal, and approximately €75 million went on the pay deal regarding intellectual disability. I make that point to illustrate that one can account for almost all of that €250 million without any incremental increase in service, other than that we obviously have to fulfil our obligations in relation to benchmarking. That is right in terms of bringing up pay and conditions of staff, which is important, but it has to be acknowledged as a significant factor in the overall story of the modern health service. Not only have we dramatically increased the employee numbers from about 68,000 to 96,000, but we have significantly improved pay rates and conditions across all grades. That has clearly had an impact on the health budget.

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