Officials conceal HSE’s funding alert

HSE director general Tony O’Brien privately warned the Government last November that the health service is facing its most difficult year in a decade due to a chronic lack of money and the “public perception” that austerity is over.

However, internal correspondence obtained by the Irish Examiner shows senior backroom Government officials forced the most overt warnings to be removed.

The details have been revealed just 24 hours after Taoiseach Enda Kenny admitted the Coalition has “failed” to keep its promises to solve a series of problems in the system, as the deepening health service crisis takes centre stage in the general election campaign.