HSE has to meet €540m funding shortfall

A FURTHER €60 million drop in health levy contributions because of the recession means that the Health Service Executive has to find a way of meeting a funding shortfall of e540m, an Oireachtas committee was told yesterday.

Health Minister Mary Harney said the figure was over and above what was provided in the HSE’s 2009 service plan that she approved last December.

She was speaking at a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children.