Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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156. To ask the Minister for Health the exact components of the €600 million Supplementary Estimate to be introduced for the health service for 2015 in tabular form. [38495/15]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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157. To ask the Minister for Health the latest projections submitted by the Health Service Executive to his Department on the expected overrun in the health budget for 2015. [38496/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 156 and 157 together.

The Department of Health is currently working to finalise its Supplementary Estimate. This was estimated at €600m for the purpose of the budgetary arithmetic in determining the 2016 budget, but the final figure will need to reflect the latest view of HSE year-end performance.

In its August Performance Report, the latest published data, the HSE is reporting year to date net expenditure of €8.380 billion against profiled net expenditure of €8.059 billion, leading to a variance of €322 million. The Report confirms that the key financial risks are in demand-led areas, as well as in the Acute and Social Care areas.

Under the HSE’s Accountability Framework, escalation procedures have been initiated in respect of financial under performance in both the Acute Hospitals and Social Care areas.

It is too early, at this stage, to accurately assess the projected overall deficit in 2015. The HSE is pro-actively engaged in internal efforts to maximise savings and to ensure that additional measures are identified and safely implemented to mitigate any projected deficits which are within HSE direct control. Furthermore, the 2015 funding arrangements assumed receipt of an additional €131m of patient income from the Private Health Insurers. This is dependent on a successful conclusion of negotiations to achieve faster payment, on which talks are continuing this week.