Health service faces crisis budget
In an embarrassing about-turn, a crisis supplementary budget was announced to deal with a health deficit which is racing towards €400m at year’s end, despite repeated Government claims such a move would not be needed.
Dr Reilly, already facing intense criticism over his botched handling of the HSE inquiry into the death of Savita Halappanavar, met Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin last night to discuss urgent ways to tackle the overspend. Mr Howlin did not give details of the funds involved, but said it would be “a tiny, tiny, tiny” fraction of the health department’s €13.5bn budget.
