Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 291: To ask the Minister for Health the level funding allocated to each sub-heading in his Department which remains unspent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40252/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Gross Current Vote for my Department in 2011 is €331.610m, of which €241.552m was spent to the end of November, leaving €90m unspent at that date. The current projection is that there will be a surplus of at least €40m on the Vote in the current year which will be surrendered to the Exchequer. This surplus can be attributed to a number of factors:

Hepatitis C Compensation Subheads

Subhead D, Inquiries and Miscellaneous Legal Fees and Settlements

There is a projected surplus of some €4-5m on this subhead this year. Subhead D provides for statutory and non-statutory enquiries and miscellaneous legal fees and settlements. Given the fluctuating nature of legal cases and settlements, the Department cannot be certain when a case may settle, and any unspent funds at the end of the year are surrendered to the Exchequer. To date in 2011, there have been a number of large payments made (€2.6m and €3.7m), with a total of €14m spent from the subhead to date, almost all of which relate to clinical negligence claims. Legal cases can run for some years, and acceptance of a settlement can be required at short notice. Demands on the subhead are determined by the number of legal cases in process at any given time, but given the uncertain nature of legal cases there is a need for some flexibility with this subhead.

Administrative Budget

The Administrative Budget is projected to be €4m in surplus in 2011. €1m of this relates to a provision made in Subhead A.7 in relation to a proposed consultancy in relation to VHI. A further €1.5m approximately is on other non-pay subheads, such as training, cleaning, office machinery and supplies etc. The remainder of the surplus is attributable to the non filling of vacancies as a result of the moratorium on recruitment, and reduced levels of overtime.

Grants to Health Agencies

It is anticipated that there will be savings of approximately some €11m in relation to Grants to Health Agencies. The main agencies showing surpluses are the Health Research Board and the Health Information and Quality Authority, with small surpluses on some of the other directly funded agencies.

There is also a projected underspend of €6.2m on the Gross Capital Vote of €16.091m, €1.5m of which was approved for a Capital carryover into 2012.