Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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914. To ask the Minister for Health the estimated cost of increasing the HSE information technology budget to bring it to the EU and OECD averages, respectively; the estimated cost of increasing the HSE information technology budget by an average of 2%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25525/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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ICT spending is composed of Capital and Revenue but excludes staff costs.  Please note that international comparisons on information technology expenditure are difficult for a variety of reasons due to the different health system arrangements across European and OECD countries.  The 2018 national service plan set out an overall budget of over €14.5 billion for the HSE of which a 2% increase on the current level of HSE capital ICT spending would indicate an capital investment figure of €290m being made available.  Additional investment in eHealth and ICT was secured for the period 2018-2021 as part of the Mid-Term Capital Review. The capital provision for eHealth and ICT for 2018 to 2021 is set out in the table below and will allow for a multi-annual rolling programme of work on multiple projects including the capital ICT elements of the New Children’s Hospital.