Kenny refuses to rule out swingeing health cuts

People will not "feel like millionaires" after the Budget, Enda Kenny said as he refused to rule out massive health cuts.

As the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting came to a close in Fota Island, Co Cork, Mr Kenny would not be drawn on a Health Department document warning that “draconian” cuts would be needed to meet proposed spending levels.

Options outlined included closing hundreds of hospital beds, and cutting opening hours in some emergency departments to reduce spending by several hundred million euro.

Mr Kenny said no decisions had yet been made and negotiations were taking place between Health Minister Leo Varadkar and Public Expenditure Reform Minister Brendan Howlin.

Referring to the Health Department document, Mr Kenny said it “sets out all the options that might be considered to meet the challenge, they are now the subject of discussion, none of those decisions have been made yet”.

“We must continue to reform and keep our patience central to the health system,” he said. “It is about accepting the need to change a structure that has not delivered in the way that we want for the people.”

Mr Kenny also downplayed speculation from ministers that the Budget on October 14 will contain some tax cuts for middle- and lower-income earners.

“When this budget is over nobody’s going to walk down the street and say ‘I suddenly feel like a millionaire’ but what they will know is that the Government has continued to strengthen that recovery, and by strengthening it we increase the opportunity for investment in jobs,” Mr Kenny told RTÉ.

Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher said the Government had displayed a “dysfunctional” approach to setting out health spending in the run-up to recent budgets.