Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the budget announcements today. It is a big change from where we were seven years ago where over €8 billion was taken out of the budget overnight. Now we are in a very good position where we have a balanced budget and can give priority to a number of areas, in particular to health and housing. An additional €1 billion was added to the budget this year. In real terms there was a €2.25 billion increase in the health budget over the last two years, which is a 15% increase. Hopefully, that will help to improve services.

We must also ensure that services are delivered in an efficient and cost-effective manner which we must now prioritise. Giving additional money is all very fine but we must also see the cost-effective delivery of these services. One of these areas is funding for GPs at the coalface. Additional funding has been provided for this. It is very important that the additional funding they require to run their practices is prioritised so they can provide services at a local level and that all of this additional funding is not swallowed up by the HSE, which we have previously seen. It is extremely important that this additional funding is ring-fenced for GP practices and the support they require. It is important that this is identified at a very early stage before the final budget for the HSE and a final programme for the health services for 2019 are agreed. This allocation of extra funding is a welcome development.It is about wise and careful use of that money now that we have it.