Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister has increased investment in Digital Health in terms of capital, revenue and non core funding for 2024.

Funding for ICT capital specifically has been increased from €140m in 2023 to €155m in 2024, with separate funding provided to continue to build cyber resilience.

Recurring funding for digital has also increased consistently, year on year, since 2020.

Funding in 2024 will be allocated to the development of more patient focussed solutions, modernising the workplace and workforce, core clinical and corporate systems, data analytics, innovation, cyber resilience and foundational infrastructure. For instance, in the other way other organisations have demonstrated modernisation of services, through the development of a patient app, we will make the benefits of existing digital health systems more visible and accessible to the public.

Existing Level of Service (ELS) funding of €23.3m is being allocated to pay for the recurring costs associated with software licensing, technical development and support that would otherwise need to be paid for from ICT capital.

ICT Capital funding of €155m has been provided for in 2024 and details of how this will be invested will be available when the ICT capital plan is published in the coming weeks.

Non core funding of €82.7 is being provided in 2024 to ensure existing systems can resist cyberattacks (€55m), to fund support for existing clinical and corporate systems (€20m) and for the continued modernisation and digitisation of the workplace (€7.7m). The capital plan will also provide investment in these two areas.

Finally, funding of €3.4m is being provided to augment the digital health resources needed to deliver modern systems that improve the way in which health services are delivered and increase our capacity to deal with increasing demands on the service (€3.4m represents half year funding recognising it will take time to hire these specialist staff).

Throughout all investment in digital, the core thread is that these investments support reform of the health service, enable integrated care, and the ability of existing staff to provide a better service to the public.