David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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339. To ask the Minister for Health the estimated cost, capital and current, of implementing the digital health framework; the amount by year; the amount currently funded in existing NDP ceilings; the amount of new funding required, in tabular form. [30343/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The recently published digital health strategy, 'Digital for Care: A Digital Health Framework for Ireland 2024-2030' describes a clear roadmap on how best to leverage digital to improve the way in which we deliver healthcare services for patients in Ireland.

The framework defines a Vision and Mission for Digital Health in Ireland. These are supported by six principles that describe how we will deliver on this vision, to guide investment and provide clear direction in building up strong digital health infrastructure and capabilities.

The framework is based on extensive stakeholder engagement and considerable engagement with other countries to understand what they have done and how they have used digital to modernise, reform and improve their health service. This includes lessons learned on what worked well as well as what did not.

The purpose of the framework is to provide direction. It does not describe the annual cost, what allocation would be required on an annual basis through NDP capital or revenue funding. However, it does make the point that 'the rate at which we choose to invest in this area will be a key determinant in the pace of roll-out of digital health capabilities and the delivery of the ambition as expressed through this framework'.

The framework also states that ' Through successive national service plans, capital and revenue funding has increased year on year. Delivery of this framework will require this incremental approach to continue through 2030 for the majority of projects, plus additional funding (capital and revenue) and staffing, specifically for the following key areas of investment: National EHRs deployed regionally, Cyber Resilience, National shared care record, Patient Engagement & Patient App, Electronic Prescribing, Telehealth and Virtual Wards, Digital Identities, and Standards & Interoperability.'

For reference, the budget for 2024 allocated €155m for ICT capital and €270m in revenue funding. This represents a significant and steady increase since 2018 when ICT capital funding was €60m.

The eHealth strategy in 2013 identified that the annual ICT budget for healthcare in Ireland was approximately 0.85% of total healthcare expenditure compared to an EU average of between 2% and 3%. Whilst considerable progress has been made since then, current insights from Gartner suggest that digitally mature healthcare systems now spend between 4% and 6% of their overall budget on digital health.

Furthermore, since 2021, allocations for ICT now include specific funding that is ringfenced every year to address the recommendations of the independent report commissioned by the board of the HSE in the wake of the cyberattack on the health service in May 2021, to build cyber resilience and maintain defences. There are also ongoing obligations to comply with EU-wide legislation on cyber security for operators of essential services, such as the EU Network and Information Systems Directive 2016/1148 and 2022/2555 (NIS1 and NIS2).

The department of health will work closely with the HSE in developing costings for the major programmes of work required to deliver on the ambition of the digital health strategic framework. The pace of delivery will ultimately be determined by the extent to which the Government choose to invest in digital, conscious of the other competing priorities for funding in health, as well as having the skills, resources and capacity for change and reform within the health service.

We would be happy to continue engagement with the Deputy as further details are developed.