Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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643. To ask the Minister for Health to specify the projected date by which duplicate financial reporting requirements between the HSE and voluntary hospitals will be eliminated, and to confirm whether interim milestones have been set for the removal of parallel reporting structures pending full IFMS deployment. [68034/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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644. To ask the Minister for Health to provide the annual estimated cost of maintaining parallel financial systems in voluntary hospitals, including software licences, staffing time and manual reporting processes, and to set out the projected savings associated with eliminating these duplicated systems. [68035/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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645. To ask the Minister for Health to publish the monthly IFMS compliance metrics for statutory sites, including the percentage of sites achieving full utilisation, and to provide the projected compliance rate for voluntary hospitals once deployment begins. [68036/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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646. To ask the Minister for Health to outline the savings originally projected in the 2015 business case for the Integrated Financial Management System, to identify the year in which those savings were expected to be realised, and to confirm whether these projections have since been revised. [68037/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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647. To ask the Minister for Health to confirm whether participation in the Integrated Financial Management System will be made an explicit condition of annual service-level agreements and the release of Exchequer funding to voluntary hospitals. [68038/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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648. To ask the Minister for Health to confirm whether her Department or the HSE has carried out any governance risk assessment relating to voluntary hospitals that have not yet been integrated into the Integrated Financial Management System, and to state whether any such assessment will be published. [68039/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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649. To ask the Minister for Health to outline the factors delaying the finalisation of the Integrated Financial Management System rollout schedule for voluntary hospitals, and to provide the expected completion date for full deployment. [68040/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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651. To ask the Minister for Health the real-time financial oversight mechanisms that will apply to voluntary hospitals once IFMS is deployed, and to set out how this data will be used to strengthen governance, auditing and expenditure control. [68042/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 643 to 649, inclusive, and 651 together.

IFMS is fundamentally changing how we manage finances across the health service. By moving from a patchwork of legacy systems to a single, integrated platform, the HSE is now able to produce financial reports, plan, and analyse spending in a much more joined-up way. This means the HSE, and in future Section 38 voluntary hospitals and larger Section 39 organisations, will all be working from the same, up-to-date information.

Since IFMS went live, HSE managers and decision-makers now have access to over 400 standard reports and custom dashboards, with the ability to drill right down to transaction level. This gives much greater transparency and allows issues or opportunities to be identified much sooner.

The quality of HSE data has improved, thanks to better validation and reconciliation processes built into the system. This is vital for both day-to-day management and longer-term planning. The HSE can now report on cash and balance sheet positions at hospital, care group, and Health Region level, which helps with forecasting and managing working capital.

Procurement is another area that will benefit. By using unique material and service codes, the HSE will be able to analyse prices and quantities in detail, track compliance with contracts, and identify where further savings can be made.

The integration with HR and payroll means better transparency of workforce costs enabling more robust workforce planning.

Looking ahead, IFMS will continue to evolve. The HSE is developing functionality for analytics, predictive forecasting, and enhanced procurement tools, and as the system is extended to voluntary providers, these benefits will be felt right across the health service.

As of July 2025, IFMS has been deployed to all statutory sites – that is, all sites directly managed by the HSE – so over 80% of all health expenditure is now managed through IFMS. Planning is underway to extend IFMS to voluntary hospitals and other voluntary providers, which will cover the remaining 20% of health expenditure.

In 2026, the IFMS is expected to deliver more timely monthly financial reporting, including expenditure, cash, and balance sheet reporting to the Department within 10–12 working days of month end. A revised control framework for expenditure approvals has been built into IFMS and will be embedded in 2026.

The business practice changes enabled by IFMS will allow the HSE to report on spend against compliant contracts in detail, helping to identify and deliver further procurement savings. The HSE is also working towards a centralised procurement catalogue for better price and volume analysis and greater compliance.

Implementation in the voluntary sector is expected to begin in early 2026. As planning for this rollout is not yet complete, I will provide a timeline for full implementation shortly.

All voluntary organisations are required to proactively cooperate with the implementation of IFMS and other key national systems. This requirement is reinforced in the Health Information Bill, which is expected to be enacted in early 2026. Part 4 of the Bill will give the HSE the legal authority to request and receive the information needed for service planning and accountability, including specifying the form and format of the information required.

The total cost incurred to date on IFMS implementation is approximately €220 million, which remains within the original 2015 business case limits. Additional costs for the next phase, rolling out to the voluntary sector, are subject to a further business case currently under consideration. The €220 million spent so far breaks down as follows:

• €114 million on ICT capital expenditure for core technology infrastructure, including SAP software licences, hardware, and systems integration.
• €21 million on ICT revenue expenditure for ongoing software maintenance, managed services, and subscriptions.
• €26 million on ICT operations, funding the SAP Centre of Excellence team and third-party support for day-to-day management and technical maintenance.
• €59 million on project implementation, covering staffing, training, change management, and other resources needed to roll out IFMS and ensure successful adoption.