Underspending health boards rebuked

UNDERSPENDING health board bosses were accused yesterday of passing the blame on to the Department of Health for their failure to manage finances properly.

Appearing before an inquiry watchdog committee in Leinster House, the chief executives of three health boards the Mid- Western HB, South-Eastern HB and the Western HB attributed their multi-million budget surpluses to the need for an emergency fund for end-of-year crises.

But Oireachtas health committee member Batt O'Keeffe rebuked the health board managers as he described the underspend as extraordinary.