Government cooked the books on health budget, says FF

Senior government officials "cooked the books" in order to ensure they could achieve a massive €666m in "unworkable" health service cutbacks over the past year, causing untold damage to the system, the opposition has claimed.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin made the remark on the first day of the party’s two-day think-in yesterday, insisting there is evidence officials “consciously misled” the public and the Dáil over what cutbacks were realistic as part of a “fraudulent” financial plan.

Speaking in Roscommon town, the former health minister said weekend revelations of previously private correspondence between the HSE, the Department of Health, and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform late last year show beyond doubt officials knew €666m worth of cuts could not be achieved.

However, despite this situation, the Cork South Central TD said the plan was still enforced — resulting in the discretionary medical cards crisis, gaping holes in the budget, such as €108m in still unspecified savings, and further pressure on a service which is already at breaking point after losing more than 20% of its budget since 2008.

“Clearly, the correspondence that has emerged reveals essentially that the Taoiseach, the then minister for health [James Reilly] and the HSE knowingly put patient safety at risk over the past 12 months. They approved a budget knowing it was not sufficient to safeguard patient safety, and that is absolutely appalling and unacceptable,” Mr Martin said.

“The evidence that it was fraudulent is in the correspondence... They cooked the books, basically.

“The whole Government are responsible, and [public expenditure and reform minister] Brendan Howlin is right in the middle of it, throwing figures at health that had no relation to reality,” he said, adding that an “independent parliamentary body” made up of civil servants must be set up to examine the accuracy of any future health budgets.

Mr Martin’s claims follow weekend reports of correspondence showing HSE director general Tony O’Brien repeatedly raised concerns over whether the level of cuts outlined was feasible, but was told the plan had to be imposed.

While former health minister Dr Reilly and his replacement Leo Varadkar declined to comment on the “fraudulent”-budget claims, both officials have previously raised concerns over the level of cutbacks being heaped upon the system.

Speaking at Labour’s pre-Dáil conference in Wexford, Mr Howlin insisted it is “patently farcical” to suggest the coalition manipulated health budget figures to suit wider financial pressures last year.